Joe Biden has tested positive for Covid-19 again, three days after announcing he was negative, and has resumed personal activities at the White House.
The US president’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, said Biden’s case was an example of the “rebound” positivity that sometimes occurs in patients who took Pfizer’s Covid-19 antiviral drug.
“The president has had no recurrence of symptoms and continues to feel quite well,” O’Connor said.
The doctor said he saw no reason “to resume treatment” of Biden, but that he would be closely monitored. The 79-year-old will follow “strict isolation procedures”.
The president was scheduled to return to Wilmington, Delaware over the weekend. Earlier on Saturday, the White House announced that the president would travel to Hemlock, Michigan on Tuesday to deliver a speech on the impact of the $280 billion Chip and Science Act, which was passed by Congress on Thursday and is aimed at revitalizing of the US semiconductor business. Both trips have been cancelled.
Biden was prescribed Paxlovid, which is recommended for Covid patients in the US who experience mild to moderate symptoms and are at high risk of developing severe disease.
While the drug has been hailed for preventing some of the worst effects of Covid-19 in older patients or patients with pre-existing conditions, some have reported cases of Covid ‘rebounding’ two to eight days after testing negative.
Biden, for example, tested negative for the virus on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning before his positive case on Saturday morning, O’Connor said.
While most patients report that their recoveries came with milder symptoms, others, including Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, say they were actually sicker during recovery.
During his first round of Paxlovid, Fauci said he felt “really pretty good” except for some fatigue and congestion, but tested positive again three days after the initial negative test. At that point, he began to feel “really bad” and “much worse” than during his first appointment, the doctor recalled at the Foreign Policy global health forum in June.
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