President Joe Biden tests positive for COVID-19 while campaigning in Las Vegas, has ‘bland symptoms’

LAS VEGAS — The White House said President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 during a trip to Las Vegas on Wednesday and is experiencing “mild symptoms,” including a “general feeling of malaise” due to the infection.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden will fly to his home in Delaware, where he will “self-isolate and fully perform all of his duties during that time.” The news was first reported by Unidos US President and CEO Janet Murguía, who told guests at the group’s convention in Las Vegas that the president had sent his condolences and could not attend because he had tested positive for the virus.

Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the president’s physician, said in a memo that Biden, 81, “presented this afternoon with upper respiratory symptoms, including a runny nose and nonproductive cough, with general malaise.” After testing positive for COVID-19, Biden was prescribed the antiviral drug Paxlovid and has taken his first dose, O’Connor said.

Biden was scheduled to speak at a Unidos event in Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon as part of an effort to mobilize Latino voters ahead of the November election. Instead, he headed to the airport to fly to Delaware, where he already planned to spend a long weekend at his home in Rehoboth Beach.

The president’s diagnosis comes amid intense scrutiny of his health and stamina following his disastrous debate with former President Donald Trump, which sparked wave of fear There is a belief among Democrats that Biden will not be up to the challenge of winning another presidential term.

Biden cautiously boarded Air Force One and told reporters traveling with him, “I feel fine.” The president was not wearing a mask as he boarded Air Force One.

The president previously visited the Original Lindo Michoacan restaurant in Las Vegas, where he greeted guests and gave an interview to Univision.

Biden has been vaccinated and is up to date on his recommended annual COVID-19 booster shot. Vaccines have proven highly effective in reducing severe illness and death from the virus, which has killed more than 1 million people in the U.S. since the pandemic began in 2020. Paxlovid has been shown to reduce the risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19 when prescribed early in the course of infection, but it has also been linked to recurrent infections, in which the virus returns several days after it has cleared up.

Biden last tested positive for COVID-19 twice in the summer of 2022, when he first had the virus and a second time he relapsed.

Health officials have reported recent increases in emergency room visits and hospitalizations due to COVID-19. Much of the country has also seen a marked raise in positive test results — especially the southwestern United States