First lady Jill Biden has tested positive for coronavirus, her office confirmed on Monday night – as the White House said Joe Biden has tested negative.
The 72-year-old is ‘experiencing only mild symptoms’ and will remain at the couple’s home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, a statement said.
Meanwhile the White House said the president has, so far, tested negative for COVID, as cases of the virus are on the rise again globally.
The first lady had accompanied the president Saturday to Florida to survey hurricane damage and then they headed to their Delaware beach home.
In a statement released Monday, Jill’s spokesman Elizabeth Alexander said ‘This evening, the First Lady tested positive for COVID-19.
‘She is currently experiencing only mild symptoms. She will remain at their home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware,’ Alexander said.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: ‘Following the First Lady’s positive test for COVID-19, President Biden was administered a COVID test this evening. The President tested negative.’
Dr. Biden previously had COVID last August and got stuck at the property the couple had vacationed at on Kiawah Island in South Carolina.
She was prescribed the antiviral Paxlovid and tested positive with a rebound case of COVID several days later.
President Biden tested positive for COVID last July. He also was treated with Paxlovid and suffered a rebound case days later.
Both the president and first lady are vaccinated and boosted. The president is expected to leave Thursday for the G20 summit in New Delhi, India.
The first lady was not expected to attend. ‘The President will test at a regular cadence this week and monitor for symptoms,’ Jean-Pierre said.
While COVID cases are on the rise, neither the president nor the first lady have worn a mask in public recently.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently turned heads by conceding that data was lacking on whether masks stopped the spread of the virus.
‘When you’re talking about the effect on the epidemic or the pandemic as a whole, the data are less strong,’ Fauci recently said on CNN. ‘But there are other studies, that show at an individual level, for individuals, they might be protective.’
Read More: Jill Biden tests POSITIVE for ‘COVID’ with ‘mild symptoms’