Live updates: President Biden tests positive for COVID-19
Rebecca Cohen
- President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, the White House announced.
- The 79-year-old is fully vaccinated and has received two booster shots.
President Joe Biden on Thursday tested positive for COVID-19, the White House announced.
This is the first time he has tested positive for the virus.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that Biden, who tested positive on Thursday morning, is "experiencing very mild symptoms" and "has begun taking Paxlovid," an antiviral drug.
Biden received his first two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in December 2020 and January 2021, and received two Pfizer booster shots in September 2021 and March 2022, making his case a so-called breakthrough infection.
Biden has tested positive for COVID-19 and is fully boosted and vaccinated. Just 22.7% of Americans his age have kept up to date with their shots.
President Joe Biden — who is fully boosted and vaccinated — tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, becoming the second US president to get infected by the virus.
And as the country sees a steady rise in daily new COVID-19 infections, just 22.7% of Americans in his age bracket have kept up to date with their vaccination shots, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Biden, who is 79 years old, falls under the "65+ Years" category — which the CDC says consists of nearly 55 million Americans. Of that population, just 12.5 million have received their second booster shot.
Biden tests positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing 'very mild symptoms'
Biden tested positive one day after traveling to Massachusetts and Rhode Island to discuss climate change, and four days after returning from an action-packed overseas trip to the Middle East.
Biden rode Air Force One to and from New England with Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, as well as Reps. Bill Keating and Jake Auchincloss.
On the ground, he appeared with elected officials including Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee and Sen. Sheldon White House of Rhode Island.
First Lady Jill Biden tested negative on Thursday morning, her office told Politico.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who previously recovered from a COVID-19 case in the spring, had no planned events on her schedule for Thursday.
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