The tests for COVID-19 on President Biden on Sunday were negative for the second consecutive day, allowing him to leave isolation.
Kevin O’Connor, “The president’s physician, wrote in a memo that the president’s antigen test for SARS-CoV-2 was negative for a second straight day.”
“He will resume public engagement and presidential travel,” wrote O’Connor.
On Saturday, Biden took an antigen test and the results came back negative. Still, he remains in isolation as a second test has yet to return with the same results. Sunday morning, he left the White House aboard Marine One for Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
“I am clear,” he told reporters before leaving, adding, “it has been 18 days!”
Biden had not left the White House since July 21, when he tested positive for COVID-19. Despite taking Paxlovid, an antiviral drug made by Pfizer, he tested negative for several days, and then last Saturday, he tested positive again, which indicates a rebound case. He is going into isolation again.
Biden participated in events virtually from the White House residence while he was in isolation. From the Blue Room balcony, he delivered remarks that were socially distant on a few occasions. On Monday, he announced the strike that killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, and on Friday, he introduced two bills to crack down on COVID-19 relief fraud.
CNN reports there are no events on Biden’s schedule for the weekend. When he and First Lady Jill Biden visit Rehoboth Beach this Sunday, they will travel to Kentucky on Monday to tour the flood zone, which killed dozens of people and devastated the area.
According to reports from the White House, Biden’s course of COVID-19 medication included symptoms such as a runny nose, sore throat, fatigue, fever, and a cough. Dr. O’Connor prescribes Paxlovid, a five-day course, for treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in 12- and older individuals with a higher risk for severe illness. Biden coughed during the rebound case, according to O’Connor’s previous memo.
Biden is fully vaccinated and has been given two booster shots. His first two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were administered before his inauguration in January 2021, and his next two shots were administered six months later.
