First Lady Jill Biden has tested positive for Covid-19, just days before President Joe Biden’s scheduled trip to India for the G20 leaders’ summit.
The White House confirmed that President Biden has tested negative for the virus.
Jill Biden, 72, is experiencing mild symptoms and will continue to stay at their residence in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, according to her communications director, Elizabeth Alexander.
President Biden’s schedule for the upcoming week is packed with events, including foreign visits across Asia. Earlier in the day, he delivered a Labor Day speech in Philadelphia and was set to present the Medal of Honor to a Vietnam War army helicopter pilot before embarking on his tour.
The President is slated to depart for India on Thursday, where he will engage in bilateral talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 leaders’ summit on September 9-10.
Subsequently, he will travel to Hanoi, Vietnam, and then to Alaska to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The White House has not yet commented on whether Jill Biden’s positive Covid test will affect President Biden’s foreign travel plans.
Notably, if President Biden were to skip the G20 summit, he would join the ranks of leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping, and Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who have already confirmed their non-attendance.
A White House administration official has stated that there are currently no changes to the Covid protocols in the White House or to the President’s schedule.
Jill Biden’s previous positive Covid-19 test occurred during the summer of 2022 while she was on vacation in South Carolina. President Biden contracted the virus a month later.
This latest development comes amid growing concerns over the highly mutated BA.2.86 variant of Covid. Many countries are grappling with a fourth wave of rising Covid cases since the onset of the pandemic in 2020.
In the week ending on August 19, the United States reported approximately four new hospital admissions with Covid infection per 100,000 individuals, a rate classified as low by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, at least seven counties reported elevated Covid-19 hospitalization rates, with 117 counties, roughly 3.6% of the country, falling within the medium threshold. Notably, a quarter of these counties were located in Florida.
The Pirola variant, an offshoot of Omicron, has been responsible for the recent surge in cases. It was first identified in Denmark on July 24 and later detected in the US and Canada in August.
Medical experts have suggested that the variant is unlikely to trigger a severe Covid wave or lead to a high number of deaths.