LAS VEGAS – President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 while traveling Wednesday in Las Vegas and is experiencing “mild symptoms” including “general malaise” due to the infection, the White House said.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden will fly to his home in Delaware, where he will “self-isolate and continue to perform all of his duties fully during this time.” The news was first shared by UnidosUS’ president and CEO. Janet Murguía, who told guests at the group’s convention in Las Vegas that the president sent his apologies and could not attend because he tested positive for the virus.
Kevin O’Connor, the president’s doctor, said in a statement that Biden, 81, “presented 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.
Biden was scheduled to speak at the UnidosUS event in Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon as part of an effort to rally Hispanic voters ahead of the November elections. Instead, he left for the airport to fly to Delaware, where he was already planning to spend a long weekend at his home in Rehoboth Beach.
The president’s diagnosis comes amid intense scrutiny of his health and resilience following a disastrous debate with former President Donald Trump that sparked a crisis wave of concern among Democrats that Biden is not up to the rigors of winning another presidential term.
Biden cautiously boarded Air Force One and told reporters traveling with him, “I feel fine.” The president did not wear a mask as he entered Air Force One.
The president had already been to the Original Lindo Michoacan restaurant in Las Vegas, where he greeted customers and sat down for an interview with Univision.
Biden has been vaccinated and is up to date with the recommended annual booster dose for COVID-19. The vaccines have proven to be highly effective in limiting serious illness and death caused by the virus, which has killed more than 1 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. 19 when prescribed in the first few days of an infection, but it has also been associated with rebound infections, where the virus returns a few days after healing.
Biden 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.
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 the southwestern U.S.
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Associated Press writers Josh Boak, Stephanie Nano and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
