Biden tests positive for COVID, cancels Las Vegas campaign event
Al Jazeera
White House says the US president has ‘mild symptoms’ and will self-isolate at his home in Delaware.
United States President Joe Biden has tested positive for COVID-19, forcing him to cancel a campaign event in Las Vegas, as pressure builds on him to drop his re-election bid because of his age.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday that Biden, 81, was experiencing “mild symptoms” and will fly to his home in Delaware, where he will “self-isolate and continue to carry out all of his duties fully”.
Jean-Pierre said Biden planned to spend a long weekend at his Delaware beach house. It was unclear how long the sickness would keep him from the campaign trail.
Minutes after the announcement, the president’s motorcade was on the move to the Las Vegas airport, and as he boarded Air Force One, Biden told reporters: “Good, I feel good.”
Dr Kevin O’Connor, the president’s physician, said in a note that Biden “presented this afternoon with upper respiratory symptoms, to include rhinorrhea [runny nose] and non-productive cough, with general malaise”.
