US President Joe Biden has tested positive for Covid-19 and is showing “mild symptoms” of the infection, the White House said on Wednesday, at a time when the Democrat was in Las Vegas campaigning for the presidential election.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden will fly back to his home in Delaware, where he will “self-isolate and continue to perform all of his duties fully during that time.”
The news was first shared by UnidosUS President and CEO Janet Murguía, who told guests at the group’s Las Vegas convention that the head of state had sent his apologies and would not be able to attend because he tested positive for the coronavirus.
Kevin O’Connor, the president’s physician, said in a statement that Biden “presented with upper respiratory symptoms this afternoon, including a runny nose and nonproductive cough, with general malaise.”
After testing positive for COVID-19, Biden was prescribed the antiviral drug Paxlovid and received his first dose, O’Connor said.
Biden was scheduled to speak at a UnidosUS event in Las Vegas later today as part of an effort to turn out Hispanic voters ahead of the November election.
The President had already been to the Original Lindo Michoacan restaurant in Las Vegas, where he greeted customers and had an interview scheduled for Univision.
Pressure on Biden to step down and abandon his re-election bid has grown since his face-to-face debate in late June with his Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, from which he emerged with a badly damaged image.
Joe Biden said in an interview with BET News, published today, that he would reconsider his decision to continue campaigning for the November elections if a doctor diagnosed him with a serious health problem.
When asked what circumstances would lead him to reconsider staying in the race, Biden responded: “If a medical condition came up, if the doctors came to tell me I had this or that problem.”
This is the first time Biden has left the door open to the possibility of withdrawing his presidential candidacy in the face of growing pressure he has faced within the party to do so, to which he has so far responded defiantly.
DMC (MYMM) // RBF
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Source: expresso.pt
