Ending his most recent COVID-19 isolation, President Joe Biden on Sunday left the White House for the first time since becoming infected with the coronavirus last month, settling in for a reunion with first lady Jill Biden in their home state of Delaware.
The president tested negative Saturday and Sunday, according to his doctor, clearing the way for him to emerge from an isolation that lasted longer than expected because of a rebound case of the virus.
“I’m feeling great,” Biden said before boarding Marine One outside the White House.
The Bidens were expected to spend the day in Rehoboth Beach, a popular vacation destination.
Biden originally tested positive on July 21, and he began taking the anti-viral medication Paxlovid, which is intended to decrease the likelihood of serious illness from the virus. According to his doctor, Biden’s vital signs remained normal throughout his infection, but he his symptoms included a runny nose, cough, sore throat and body aches.
After isolating for several days, Biden tested negative on July 26 and July 27, when he gave a speech in the Rose Garden, telling Americans they can “live without fear” of the virus if they get booster shots, test themselves for the virus if they become sick and seek out treatments.
But Biden caught a rare rebound case of COVID-19 on July 30, forcing him to isolate again. He occasionally gave speeches from a White House balcony, such as when he marked the killing of an al-Qaida leader or a strong jobs report.
He continued to test positive until Saturday, when he received his first negative result. While the president was isolating in the White House residence, the first lady remained in Delaware.
The Bidens are scheduled to visit Kentucky on Monday to view flood damage and meet with families.
President Joe Biden tested negative for COVID-19 on Saturday but will continue to isolate at the White House until a second negative test, his doctor said.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor wrote in his latest daily update that the president, “in an abundance of caution,” will abide by the “strict isolation measures” in place since his “rebound” infection was detected July 30, pending a follow-up negative result.
Biden, 79, came down with the virus a second time three days after he had emerged from isolation from his initial bout with COVID-19, reported on July 21. There have been rare rebound cases documented among a small minority of those, who like Biden, were prescribed the anti-viral medication Paxlovid, which has been proved to reduce the risk of serious illness and death from the virus among those at highest risk.
O’Connor wrote that Biden “continues to feel very well.”
Biden’s travel has been on hold as he awaited a negative test. He plans to visit Kentucky on Monday to view damage from catastrophic flooding and meet with families.
Biden was “doing great,” 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. She said that when she speaks to the president, he tells her to “tell folks I’ve been working eight-plus hours a day.”
During his first go-around with the virus, Biden’s primary symptoms were a runny nose, fatigue and a loose cough, his doctor said at the time. During his rebound case, O’Connor said only Biden’s cough returned and had “almost completely resolved” by Friday.
Regulators are still studying the prevalence and virulence of rebound cases, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in May warned doctors that it has been reported to occur within two days to eight days after initially testing negative for the virus.
“Limited information currently available from case reports suggests that persons treated with Paxlovid who experience COVID-19 rebound have had mild illness; there are no reports of severe disease,” the agency said at the time.
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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
Some 80,000 tourists are stranded in the southern Chinese beach resort of Sanya, after authorities declared it a COVID-19 hot spot and imposed a lockdown.
The restrictions came into force on Saturday morning, as authorities sought to stem the spread of COVID-19 in the city on tropical Hainan Island. There were 229 confirmed cases on Friday and an additional 129 on Saturday.
China’s ruling Communist Party sticks steadfastly to a “zero-COVID” approach that is increasingly at odds with the rest of the world. A recent outbreak in Shanghai spread so widely that authorities locked down the entire city, China’s largest, for two months, trapping millions of people and dealing a blow to the national economy.
Railway authorities banned all ticket sales in Sanya while all flights were also canceled on Saturday.
Tourists wanting to depart Sanya have to test negative for the coronavirus on five PCR tests over seven days, authorities said.
Meanwhile, hotels will offer guests a 50% discount during the lockdown period, a city official said during a news briefing.
The lockdown comes during a peak tourism season in Sanya, which is famous for its resorts and beaches.
The Florida Board of Medicine is set to discuss state guidance against gender-affirming treatments for children at its upcoming meeting Friday morning.
The consideration is in response to a letter penned by Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who wrote the board to recommend they follow the Florida Department of Health’s guidance against performing gender dysphoria treatments on minors.
According to the meeting agenda, board members will discuss Ladapo’s letter and rulemaking for setting a standard of care for treatment of gender dysphoria.
The Office of Population Affairs described gender dysphoria treatments — also known as gender-affirming care — as “an array of services that may include medical, surgical, mental health, and non-medical services for transgender and nonbinary people.”
In a release, OPA said that gender-affirming care is “crucial” for transgender children and adolescents, citing examples of social affirmation, puberty blockers and hormone therapy as possible forms of treatment.
FDOH, however, “fact-checked” OPA’s release, stating that puberty blockers and hormone therapy can have harmful effects on children exposed to them.
In a report, FDOH said that such treatments can have adverse health repercussions, which include cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, infertility, increased risk of cancer and thrombosis.
The Florida Board of Medicine is scheduled to begin its meeting 8 a.m. Friday at the Marriott Fort Lauderdale Airport in Dania Beach.
News 6 has attached the documents to be discussed during the board’s meeting, which can be viewed below.
Total Doses Distributed = 794,231,535. Total Doses Administered = 604,235,972. Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses = 261,591,428. Number of People Fully Vaccinated = 223,035,566.
New coronavirus cases fell 9% globally last week while deaths remained stable, according to the latest weekly assessment of the pandemic released Wednesday by the World Health Organization.
The U.N. health agency said there were 6.5 million cases reported last week with more than 14,000 deaths. WHO said the number of new cases fell 35% in Europe but increased about 20% in the Western Pacific and 5% in Africa. Deaths rose 44% in the Western Pacific and 26% in the Middle East, while falling about a quarter in Europe.
WHO has previously warned that recent surveillance of COVID-19 has been severely compromised by countries reducing their testing, reporting and other coronavirus alert systems. The agency has said COVID-19 figures are likely being significantly underestimated, which could make it more difficult to spot any worrisome new variants.
In the U.K., the Office for National Statistics reported last week that COVID-19 cases dropped to about 1 in 20 people in England infected, suggesting that the latest wave of the coronavirus may have peaked in the country.
Dr. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, said it was likely that COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations would continue to fall further in the following weeks.
Other experts warned that measures to prevent COVID-19 should still be taken, saying the health system was still under pressure.
“We have to hope that the incidence of long COVID from this wave will be lower than in the first and second waves,” said James Naismith, director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute at the University of Oxford. He called for people to keep getting vaccinated even as COVID-19 protocols were abandoned, citing the dangers of reinfection.
In China, meanwhile, authorities last week shut down part of Wuhan, the city where COVID-19 was first detected in late 2019, after identifying four cases. The government has suggested its “zero COVID” strategy could last for years, despite the social and economic upheaval the approach has caused.
WHO said in its report that two versions of omicron — subvariants BA.5 and BA.4 — were driving the latest wave of infections across the globe. It said BA.5 accounted for about 64% to 70% of sequences shared with the world’s largest public viral database.
The highest numbers of new cases were reported in Japan, the U.S., South Korea, Germany and Italy. The most deaths were reported in the U.S., Brazil, Italy, Japan and Australia.
