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President Biden tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, the White House said in a release. The president, who is fully vaccinated and double-boosted, reported mild symptoms and will begin to take Paxlovid, the antiviral pill, to reduce the severity of his COVID-19 symptoms.
Biden will return to work in-person once he tests negative.
The news comes amid another wave of COVID-19, with average daily cases across the country increasing to levels not seen since December 2021 when the omicron variant was beginning to spike, according to the New York Times COVID-19 tracking map.
The dominant variant, accounting for 78% of cases in the US, is BA.5, a subvariant of omicron. BA.5 is more contagious, but it’s unclear whether it is more severe.
