Biden tests negative for COVID-19 after recent rebound

He’s reportedly ‘doing great’ but will keep isolating at the White House until a second test confirms results.

WASHINGTON — President Biden tested negative for COVID-19 on Saturday but will continue to isolate at the White House until he has a second negative test, his doctor said.

Dr. Kevin O’Connor’s daily update said that the president, “in an abundance of caution,” will abide by the “strict isolation measures” in place since his rebound infection was detected July 30, as he awaits a negative follow-up test.

Biden, 79, had tested positive again three days after he emerged from isolation from his initial bout with COVID-19, which was reported on July 21.

Rare rebound cases have been documented among a small minority of those who, like Biden, were prescribed the antiviral medication Paxlovid, which has been shown to reduce the risk of serious illness and death from the coronavirus among those at highest risk.

O’Connor wrote that the president “continues to feel very well.”

Biden’s travel has been on hold as he awaits negative test results. If he is cleared, he plans to visit Kentucky on Monday to view damage from catastrophic flooding and meet with affected families.

Biden was “doing great,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Saturday when asked about his health during her appearance in Las Vegas at a joint conference of the National Assn. of Black Journalists and the National Assn. of Hispanic Journalists. She said the president wants her to “tell folks [he’s] been working eightplus hours a day.”

During his first round of the virus, Biden’s primary symptoms were a runny nose, fatigue and a loose cough, his doctor said at the time. During his rebound case, O’Connor said that only Biden’s cough had returned and that it was “almost completely resolved” by Friday.

Regulators are still studying the prevalence and virulence of rebound cases, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned doctors in May that rebounds have been reported to occur within two to eight days after a patient initially tests negative for the virus.

“Limited information currently available from case reports suggests that persons treated with Paxlovid who experience COVID-19 rebound have had mild illness,” the agency said at the time. “There are no reports of severe disease.”