President Joe Biden will wear a face mask again after being in close contact with First Lady Jill Biden, who tested positive for COVID on Monday.
The president remains negative after being tested Monday evening and Tuesday morning, but he will follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevent guidelines when it comes to testing and masking.
“He will mask indoors and around people, in accordance with CDC guidelines and as has been the practice in the past. The president will remove his mask if there is sufficient distance from others, both inside and outside,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Jill Biden missed the first day of school on Tuesday. The first lady, who teaches English at Northern Virginia Community College, arranges a replacement for her classes.
“She is working with NOVA to ensure her classes are covered by a substitute,” her office said.
The first lady is staying at the couple’s home in Rehoboth Beach, where she was when she tested positive. The Bidens spent a long holiday weekend at their vacation home and traveled to Florida together on Saturday to witness the damage from Hurricane Idalia.
President Joe Biden remains negative on COVID, while Jill Biden missed the first day of school after testing positive
Jill Biden’ has mild symptoms and will be staying in Delaware for a week. President Biden tested negative for COVID-19 last night and tested negative again today. He has no symptoms,” Jean-Pierre noted.
“There are currently no updates to White House COVID-19 protocols,” she noted.
The number of COVID cases is increasing across the country. According to data from the CDC in late August, nationwide COVID hospitalizations are up nearly 19% in one week and deaths are up more than 21%.
Two new variants: The Omicron variant EG.5 – nicknamed Eris – has become dominant in the US, while BA.2.86 is beginning to spread.
The first lady, 72, usually teaches on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is unclear when she will return to the White House and what her normal schedule is.
Jill Biden was also scheduled to attend a dinner on Tuesday evening for American athletes participating in the Invictus Games, the games for wound warriors founded by Prince Harry.
She had to cancel that performance.
President Joe Biden will wear a face mask around people again in January 2022 – the president is wearing a face mask above
President Biden remains negative despite close contact with his wife.
The couple spent Sunday night together at their Rehoboth Beach home before Joe flew to Philadelphia on Monday to celebrate Labor Day with a speech to union workers.
In a statement released Monday, Jill’s spokesperson Elizabeth Alexander said: ‘Tonight the First Lady tested positive for COVID-19.
“She is currently experiencing only mild symptoms. She will stay at their house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware,’ Alexander said.
Jill Biden previously had COVID last August and became trapped in the property where the couple had been vacationing on South Carolina’s Kiawah Island.
She was prescribed the antiviral drug Paxlovid and tested positive a few days later with a rebound case of COVID.
President Biden tested positive for COVID last July. He was also treated with Paxlovid and had a rebound case days later.
Both the president and the first lady are vaccinated and boosted.
The president is expected to leave for the G20 summit in New Delhi, India, on Thursday.
“All travelers, including the president, will test before traveling to India,” Jean-Pierre said, noting that Biden will test at a “regular cadence.”
She would answer questions about what happens if Biden tests negative on the way to the trip or how often he would test while there.
The first lady was not expected to be present.
Jill Biden visited a school in Wisconsin last week
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden traveled to Florida together on Saturday
While the number of COVID cases is on the rise, neither the president nor the first lady have worn a mask in public recently.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently drew attention by admitting that there was a lack of data on whether masks stopped the spread of the virus.
“When you talk about the effect on the epidemic or the pandemic as a whole, the data is less strong,” Fauci recently told CNN. “But there are other studies that show on an individual level that they can be protective for individuals.”
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