United States President Joe Biden contracts COVID-19 | Coronavirus

United States President Joe Biden

United States President Joe Biden has contracted COVID -19 and has “very mild symptoms,” the White House said in a statement.

The president has started taking Paxlovid, Pfizer's antiviral pill, and will self-isolate at the White House until he tests negative again, his spokeswoman Karine said. Jean-Pierre.

Joe Biden, fully vaccinated and who has received two booster doses so far, would continue to perform his full duties during this time.

The White House has promised to communicate daily on the state of health of Joe Biden, the oldest president ever elected in the United States.

Paxlovid treatment is recommended in the United States for people at risk of developing severe case of the disease, a category in which the American president falls due to his age.

The Democrat's last negative test, returning from a tour last week in the Middle East, dated back to Tuesday, said Karine Jean-Pierre.

The president had to move to Pennsylvania on Thursday and to Florida next Monday, among other things to campaign for the midterm elections.

The United States is currently seeing around 130,000 new cases of COVID-19 per day, an underestimated figure according to experts, and the number of hospitalizations is also in decline. rise. The highly contagious BA.5 subvariant of Omicron is dominant in the country, where it accounts for approximately 80% of cases.

Joe Biden's predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, had also contracted COVID-19 just over a month before the November 2020 election.

He had been evacuated by helicopter from the White House to the #x27;Walter Reed Military Hospital, where he had been treated for three nights.

With information from Agence France-Presse