WASHINGTON — President Biden continues to “improve significantly” after testing positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, his physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, said Sunday.
According to a letter released by Dr O’Connor, Mr Biden did not have shortness of breath or reduced oxygen levels, and his main symptom on Sunday was a sore throat – a result of the immune response. Dr. O’Connor added that the president will continue to self-isolate but that he is “responding to therapy as expected.”
Officials said the president first began experiencing symptoms — including a mild fever, runny nose and dry cough — on Wednesday. But on Sunday, Dr O’Connor said they had “reduced significantly”.
During an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, said BA.5 — a subvariant of Omicron that now accounts for 75 to 80 percent of new cases of coronavirus in the United States – caused Mr. Biden’s illness.
Dr. Jha also told ABC’s “This Week” that as of late Saturday, none of the 17 people believed to have been in close contact with Mr. Biden had tested positive for the virus.
After announcing last week that the president had contracted the virus, officials said he would self-isolate at the White House for at least five days, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In the days since, officials have repeatedly described Mr. Biden’s symptoms as “mild” and emphasized that he was able to continue working, in no small part because he received all recommended doses of the vaccine.
“I suspect it’s going to be a course of Covid that we’ve seen in many Americans who have been fully vaccinated, doubly boosted, treated with these tools in hand,” Dr. Jha said. “You know, the president is doing well, and we would expect him to continue to do so.”
As well as the protection offered by the vaccine, Mr Biden, 79, was also given Paxlovid, an antiviral drug used to prevent serious illness. It particularly protects people in the high-risk categories, which include those over 65.
“Thank God our vaccines and therapeutics are working well against it, which is why I think the president is doing well,” Dr Jha said.
Mr Biden’s illness comes as BA.5 has caused another wave of infections in the United States, including among many people who have been vaccinated and have recovered from a previous Covid infection relatively recently. BA.5, believed to be the most transmissible variant to date, has been dominant in the United States for several weeks, and since then, Covid hospitalizations have risen by more than 15 percent in the past 14 days.
While Mr. Biden’s case so far does not appear to have significantly disrupted his work schedule, public health officials took the opportunity to ask those infected to get adequate rest and to urge those not yet vaccinated to get the shot at to prevent serious illness.
“This is a reminder to everyone,” Dr. Jha said at a news conference Thursday after the president’s announcement. “If you are over the age of 50 and if you have not been vaccinated in 2022, you should go and get vaccinated. You should go get one now because it will drastically improve your defense level.
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