White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor said in a letter that Biden “has not had any further symptoms and continues to feel quite well.” O’Connor said there was “no reason to restart treatment at this time.”
Read more: US President Joe Biden tests positive for COVID-19
According to the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Biden will return to isolation for at least five days. He will be isolated at the White House until he tests negative. The agency says most cases of recovery remain mild and that serious illness during this period has not been reported. Story continues below ad Just like when Biden first tested positive, the White House has tried to show it’s still working. The president tweeted a photo of himself wearing a mask and no tie, which showed him signing a statement that added individual aid for flood survivors in Kentucky. The president followed up by tweeting a 12-second video of himself on a White House balcony with his dog, Commander. “I feel good, everything is good,” said Biden, a pair of aviator sunglasses in his hand. “But the Commander and I have some work to do.” A quick update. pic.twitter.com/FgT1sGlZCY — President Biden (@POTUS) July 30, 2022 News of Biden’s positive test — he tested negative Friday morning — came just two hours after the White House announced a presidential visit to Michigan next Tuesday to highlight the passage of a bill to promote domestic high-tech manufacturing. . Biden was also scheduled to visit his home in Wilmington, Delaware on Sunday morning, where first lady Jill Biden has been staying while the president tested positive. Both trips were canceled as Biden returned to self-isolation. Story continues below ad Biden, 79, was treated with the antiviral drug Paxlovid after first testing positive on July 21. He was negative for the virus last Tuesday and Wednesday. He was then released from isolation wearing a mask indoors. His positive tests put him among the minority of those prescribed the drug to experience a rebound of the virus. Trending Stories
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The White House’s coordinator for COVID-19, Dr. Ashish Jha, told reporters on Monday that the data “suggests that between 5 and 8 percent of people have recovered” after treatment with Paxlovid. “Recognizing the possibility of a so-called ‘bounceback’ of COVID positivity seen in a small percentage of patients treated with Paxlovid, the President has increased his tried-and-true pace to protect those around him and ensure early detection of any resurgence of viral replication “, O ” Connor wrote in his letter. O’Connor reported negative tests for Biden from Tuesday night, Wednesday morning, Thursday morning and Friday morning, before the positive result Saturday morning with an antigen test. “This actually represents ‘recovery’ positivity,” he wrote. According to the CDC, those with a COVID rebound should self-isolate for at least five days, ending if the fever has subsided for 24 hours without medication and symptoms have improved. The patient “should wear a mask for a total of 10 days after the onset of recovery symptoms. Some people continue to be positive after day 10, but they are much less likely to shed infectious virus.” Story continues below ad 3:17 Biden did not have a fever after testing positive for COVID-19, White House insists Biden did not have a fever after testing positive for COVID-19, White House insists – July 22, 2022 Both the Food and Drug Administration and Pfizer point out that 1% to 2% of people in Pfizer’s initial study of Paxlovid saw their viral levels recover after 10 days. The rate was about the same among people taking the drug or the placebo pills, “so it’s not clear at this point that this is related to the medication,” according to the FDA. While Biden tested negative, he returned to hosting internal events and meetings with White House staff and wore a mask, as directed by the CDC. However, the president removed his mask indoors when he delivered remarks on Thursday and during a meeting with CEOs on the White House compound. Asked why Biden appeared to be violating CDC protocols, spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said: “They were socially distanced. They were quite far apart. So we made it safe for them to be together, to be on that stage.” Story continues below ad Regulators are still studying the prevalence and infectivity of rebound cases, but the CDC in May warned doctors that it has been reported to occur within two days to eight days of an initial negative test for the virus.
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“The limited information currently available from case reports suggests that people treated with Paxlovid who recover from COVID-19 had mild disease. there are no reports of serious illness,” the agency said at the time. When Biden was initially released from isolation on Wednesday, O’Connor said the president would “increase the pace of his testing” to catch any possible resurgence of the virus. Paxlovid has been shown to significantly reduce serious illness and death among those most vulnerable to COVID-19. US health officials have encouraged those who test positive to consult their doctors or pharmacists to see if they should be prescribed the treatment, despite the risk of a rebound. Biden is fully vaccinated, having received two doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine shortly before taking office, a first booster dose in September and an additional dose on March 30. While patients who have recovered from earlier variants of COVID-19 tend to have high levels of immunity to future re-infection for 90 days, Jha said the BA.5 sub-variant that infected Biden has been shown to be more “immune-resistant”. Story continues below ad “We’ve seen a lot of people re-infected within 90 days,” he said, adding that officials do not yet have data on how long those who have recovered from the BA.5 strain are protected from re-infection. © 2022 The Canadian Press
