Biden tests positive for COVID-19 with mild symptoms, will self isolate

LAS VEGAS - President Joe Biden has tested positive for COVID-19.

The information was according to a speaker at the UnidosUS annual conference broadcast on the White House's YouTube channel.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden will fly to his home in Delaware, where he will "self-isolate and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time." The news had first been shared by Unidos US President and CEO Janet Murguía, who told guests at the group's convention in Las Vegas that president had sent his regrets and could not appear because he tested positive for the virus.

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Dr. Kevin O'Connor, the president's physician, said in a note that Biden "presented this afternoon with upper respiratory symptoms, to include rhinorhea (runny nose) and non-productive cough, with general malaise." After the positive COVID-19 test, Biden was prescribed the antiviral drug Paxlovid and has taken his first dose, O'Connor said.

Biden was slated to speak at the Unidos event in Las Vegas Wednesday afternoon as part of an effort to rally Hispanic voters ahead of the November election.

The president had previously been at the Original Lindo Michoacan restaurant in Las Vegas, where he was greeting diners and was scheduled to have an interview with Univision.

Biden gingerly boarded Air Force One and told reporters traveling with him, "I feel good." The president was not wearing a mask as he walked onto Air Force One.

Has Biden tested positive for COVID-19 before?

Biden tested positive for COVID-19 in July 2022 and a second time slightly more than three days after he was cleared to exit coronavirus isolation. The second incident was a rare case of "rebound" infection following treatment with an anti-viral drug.

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Has Biden received the COVID-19 vaccine?

Biden received the updated COVID-19 vaccine and annual flu shot, the White House said last September. 

COVID-19 cases are rising in some areas

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been  upticks in emergency room visits and hospitalizations from COVID-19. There has also been a pronounced increase in positive test results in much of the country — particularly the southwestern U.S.

Given that the pandemic was declared officially over as of May 5, 2023, public health officials don’t collect the same amount of COVID data as they once did.

Does COVID spread more in summer?

Since COVID-19 emerged in 2020, scientists have learned that the virus has seasonal patterns, Varma said, with predictable peaks in spring/early summer and winter.

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"Winter peaks are easy to explain — more people spend time indoors, and there are changes in the climate, including relative humidity, that make it easier for infections to spread through the air," Varma, who served as the New York City mayor's senior adviser for public health during the COVID-19 pandemic, told Fox News Digital.

It’s not quite as easy, however, to explain the peak during warmer weather. 

"It may be because the virus evolves at a frequency that aligns with the spring/summer — or there could be other environmental factors that we do not understand well," Varma said.

Should you get a fall vaccine?

As of June 27, the CDC recommends that all people 6 months of age and older get updated 2024-2025 COVID vaccines when they become available in fall 2024.

The updated vaccine will target the new, prevalent subvariants.

FOX News and The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Los Angeles.