US President Joe Biden tested negative for COVID-19 on Saturday, a week after testing positive in a “rebound” case.
“The President continues to feel very well,” White House Physician Kevin O’Connor said in a memo, adding that Biden would continue to isolate pending a second negative test, “out of an abundance of caution.”
Biden, who’s fully vaccinated and double boosted, first tested positive for COVID on July 21 and started taking Paxlovid, an oral medication used to prevent severe cases. He experienced only mild coronavirus symptoms, including a runny nose, fatigue and an occasional cough. On July 25, O’Connor said Biden’s symptoms had “almost completely resolved,” and on July 27, the physician said Biden had completed his five-day course of Paxlovid and had tested negative for the first time the previous night.
But on July 30 (last Saturday) Biden again tested positive, though no symptoms had reemerged and O’Connor said no additional treatment was needed. O’Connor said at the time that Biden had been testing more frequently for the coronavirus because of the possibility of a COVID recurrence following his treatment with Paxlovid.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in an advisory earlier this year that a small number of participants in a clinical trial of Paxlovid had positive test results after testing negative. The agency said in those cases, the recurrence of illness improved or resolved without additional treatment in an average of three days.
On Saturday, O’Connor said Biden’s health had been monitored daily since the positive, rebound test result.
The news about Biden comes amid concern about Omicron BA.5, the new and extremely contagious variant of COVID.
Read more: What We Know About Omicron BA.5
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
