President Joe Biden announced that he had tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday, July 21, and Dr. Kevin O’Connor, his primary physician, has been offering updates on his condition since. According to O’Connor’s most recent update on Saturday, July 23, the president, 79, likely contracted a highly contagious variant of COVID-19 and is now experiencing the following symptoms; “sore throat, rhinorrhea [runny nose], loose coughs and body aches.”
O’Connor also noted that Biden completed his second full day of Paxlovid, the latest Pfizer antiviral therapy pill, and that his primary symptoms are “less troublesome.” The doctor explained that this variant is the BA.5, which the Associated Press reports is an “offshoot of the omicron strain” that emerged in late 2021, and is “believed to be responsible for the vast majority” of current coronavirus cases in the United States.
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While Biden has been isolating in the White House ever since his diagnosis, O’Connor wrote that his vital signs (blood pressure and respiratory rate) “remain entirely normal.” In addition, his oxygen saturation levels are “excellent” with “no shortness of breath at all.”
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In O’Connor’s previous updates, the doctor indicated that Biden had an elevated temperature of 99.4 F on Thursday evening, but after taking Tylenol, it returned to normal. The Biden Administration has also stressed that his symptoms are now mild after he has received 4 vaccine doses. On Friday, July 22, Biden met with economic advisers virtually, and sounded hoarse as he spoke but insisted, “I feel much better than I sound.”
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First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, 71, tested negative for the virus on Thursday and again on Friday, her spokesman Michael LaRosa said, adding that she “remains symptom-free.” She will remain in the couple’s Wilmington, Delaware home through at least Tuesday while her husband receives treatment, as her office said on Friday.
