Biden tests positive for COVID and cancels campaign event in Las Vegas | 2024 US Election News

United States President Joe Biden has tested positive for COVID-19, forcing him to cancel a campaign event in Las Vegas as pressure mounts on him to drop his re-election bid due to his age.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that Biden, 81, was experiencing “mild symptoms” and will fly to his home in Delaware, where he will “self-isolate and continue to fully comply.” all its functions.”

Jean-Pierre said Biden planned to spend a long weekend at his beach house in Delaware. It was unclear how long the illness would keep him away from the campaign.

Minutes after the announcement, the president’s motorcade was on its way to the Las Vegas airport, and as he boarded Air Force One, Biden told reporters, “Good, I feel good.”

Kevin O’Connor, the president’s doctor, said in a statement that Biden “experienced upper respiratory symptoms this afternoon, including rhinorrhea [runny nose] and unproductive cough, with general malaise”.

After testing positive COVID-19, Biden was prescribed the antiviral drug Paxlovid and took his first dose, O’Connor said.

News of Biden’s illness was first shared by the CEO of Unidos US, a Latino civil rights group, in Las Vegas. Biden was scheduled to speak at the group’s convention Wednesday afternoon as part of an effort to rally Hispanic voters ahead of the November election.

Janet Murguia, CEO of Unidos, told guests that the president sent his apologies and was unable to attend because he tested positive for the virus.

“He said to tell my parents we’re not getting rid of him so quickly. We will have a chance to hear from you directly in the future,” she said.

There were groans in the conference room at the news.

‘Serious concerns’

The president’s diagnosis comes amid intense scrutiny of his health and stamina following a disastrous debate with former President Donald Trump that sparked a wave of concern among Democrats that Biden is not up to the rigors of winning another presidential term.

ABC News reported on Wednesday that Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told Biden that it would be better for the country and the party if he ended his re-election campaign. ABC News also said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries also expressed similar views directly to Biden.

In a statement, Schumer’s office called the report “idle speculation” and said Schumer “conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden on Saturday.”

On Wednesday morning, Democratic U.S. Representative Adam Schiff became the 20th Democrat in Congress to publicly call on Biden to drop out of the race.

“While the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch,” Schiff said in a statement. “And in doing so, secure his legacy of leadership, allowing us to defeat Donald Trump in the next election.”

A poll released by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research on Wednesday showed that nearly two-thirds of Democrats believe Biden should drop out of the race and allow the party to choose a new candidate.

Only about three in 10 Democrats also said they were extremely or very confident that Biden has the mental capacity to serve effectively as president, slightly lower than the 40 percent who said the same in a February poll.

Still, the Associated Press news agency and other US media outlets have reported that Democrats intend to hold a virtual vote to formally make Biden the nominee in the first week of August. This is before the Democratic National Convention, which will be held in Chicago from August 19 to 22 and is typically where the party’s presidential nominee would be confirmed.

Meanwhile, Biden has been defiant in the face of calls to drop out of the race, telling an interviewer that only the “Lord Almighty” could persuade him to drop out.

Al Jazeera’s John Hendren, reporting from Washington, D.C., said the timing of Biden’s illness “couldn’t be worse” for the president and said it was critical that the White House “be absolutely clear” about his health.

“That’s because there is great concern across the country that Biden’s physical and mental condition has been hidden from the public, that he has been hidden among a small group of aides, and that for a long time he has not done much networking. free. interviews, and that he hadn’t been on the road in any major way until recently,” Hendren said.

The US leader last tested positive for COVID-19 twice in the summer of 2022, when he had a primary case and a rebound case of the virus.

Biden has been vaccinated and is currently receiving the recommended annual COVID-19 booster dose. The vaccines have proven to be highly effective in limiting serious illness and death caused by the virus, which has killed more than a million people in the U.S. since the pandemic began in 2020.

Paxlovid has been shown to reduce the chances of serious illness and death from COVID-19 when prescribed in the first few days of an infection, but it has also been linked to rebound infections, where the virus comes back a few days after healing.

Health officials have reported recent increases in emergency room visits and hospitalizations for COVID-19. There has also been a pronounced increase in positive test results across much of the country – particularly in the southwestern US.