The US president will skip a public appearance and self-isolate at home, the White House has confirmed
FILE PHOTO: US President Joe Biden receives his updated Covid-19 booster, October 25, 2022 © Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images
US President Joe Biden is experiencing “mild symptoms” after contracting Covid-19 and will cancel his planned public appearances in Las Vegas to isolate in Delaware, the White House announced on Wednesday.
”The President presented this afternoon with upper respiratory symptoms, including rhinorrhea (runny nose) and a non-productive cough, with general malaise. He felt okay for his first event of the day, but given that he was not feeling better, point-of-care testing for COVID-19 was conducted, and the results were positive,” the president’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, said.
The White House emphasized that Biden is “vaccinated and boosted and he is experiencing mild symptoms,” and has already received “his first dose of Paxlovid.”
Biden was scheduled to speak at the civil rights nonprofit UnidosUS conference on Wednesday, but the organizers said that the plan was scrapped.
Biden just got COVID, but not wearing a mask for benefit of protecting others? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/sXUkEA8g1a
— Wayne DuPree (@WayneDupreeShow) July 17, 2024
Republicans have long alleged that the 81-year-old US leader lacks physical and mental fortitude for the presidency, but his performance at a CNN-hosted debate with Trump last month put his apparent frailty on display for members of his own party, too. On Tuesday, Biden gave a brief speech at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) convention in which he again struggled to complete sentences, despite reading from a teleprompter.
In an interview with BET News filmed earlier this week, Biden was asked whether anything would make him reconsider staying in the race for the White House.
”If I had some medical condition that emerged, if doctors came and said ‘you’ve got this problem, that problem,’” Biden responded.
It is the third time the oldest sitting US president has tested positive for Covid-19. Biden first contracted the virus on July 21, 2022, and less than two weeks later tested positive again in a “rebound” case. According to the White House, Biden will now return to Delaware “where he will self-isolate and continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time.”