President Joe Biden tested negative for COVID-19 this Saturday, after a week testing positive for a "rebound" case of the disease, but will continue to isolate himself until a second test confirms the result.
"The president continues to feel well," Biden's doctor, Kevin O'Connor, explained in a letter distributed by the White House, adding that he will continue to self-isolate "out of an abundance of caution."
The White House announced last Thursday, July 21, that Biden had been infected and on Wednesday, July 27, he came out of isolation after testing negative.
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However, on Saturday, July 30, he tested positive again, according to O'Connor for the effects of the oral antiretroviral drug Paxlovid that he took for five days to help with the symptoms of the disease.
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According to the doctor, that pill may have a "rebound effect", which is what would have caused the president's second positive.
Biden is expected to travel with First Lady Jill Biden to Kentucky on Monday to oversee rescue teams and support families affected by recent flooding, which has left dozens dead and hundreds missing. in the state.
The president "is doing very well," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Saturday when asked about his health during her appearance in Las Vegas at a joint conference of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
And she added that when she talks to the president, he tells her to "tell people that he has been working more than eight hours a day."
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During his first bout with the virus, Biden's main symptoms were a runny nose, fatigue and a loose cough, his doctor said at the time.
During her rebound case, O'Connor said he only coughed back and had “almost fully recovered” by Friday.
Regulators are still studying the prevalence and virulence of rebound cases, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned doctors in May that they have been reported to occur between two days and eight days. days after testing negative for the virus.
“The limited information currently available from case reports suggests that people treated with Paxlovid who experience COVID-19 rebound have had mild illness;
there are no reports of serious illness,” the agency said at the time.
With information from Efe and AP.