President Joe Biden’s “loose cough” returned Tuesday, according to his doctor’s assessment, when he continued to test positive for COVID-19 about 13 days after he was first diagnosed.
It means the 79-year-old is stuck in the White House complex, isolated from staff and family members.
“The President remains well despite experiencing a mild coughing fit,” wrote Dr. Kevin O’Connor.
“He remains fever-free and in good spirits.”
Biden tested negative for COVID twice last week but tested positive again on Saturday in what O’Connor described as a “rebound” that occurs in a small percentage of patients taking the antiviral drug Paxlovid.
It thwarted the President’s plans for a weekend in Delaware.
But he was able to make a video appearance Monday announcing that the US had killed al Qaeda boss Ayman al-Zawahiri over the weekend.
In his letter, O’Connor said the President would continue his strict isolation.
President Joe Biden’s ‘loose cough’ has returned as it has, according to White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor, continues to test positive for COVID-19
O’Connor provides daily update on President’s health as he tests positive for COVID
According to Pfizer, 40,000 Paxlovid prescriptions are issued every day
“He will continue to direct the affairs of the American people from the executive residence,” he wrote.
“As I have said before, the President remains very diligent in protecting all employees of the Executive Residence, White House, Secret Service and other employees whose duties require close (albeit socially distanced) proximity to him.”
A day earlier, the White House said the president continued to have mild “persistent symptoms.”
Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made the comment after O’Connor said in a letter Biden remains “well” after suffering a rebound case of the virus shortly after testing negative.
“No recurring symptoms — that is, if you look at it [O’Connor’s] Original letter, there is nothing. There’s nothing heavy, is there? Because he feels good. He feels like he’s feeling good.’
“But as we know we’ve all had COVID, we’ve got a little bit of a persistent cough, a little bit of maybe a persistent runny nose. It’s not unusual, so let’s talk about it,” she said, without specifying the exact nature of the president’s grievances.
“Many of us have had COVID before and they tend to have ongoing symptoms and that’s what I’m talking about,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday, while providing some details about how what the president’s symptoms after his rebound case
He appears to be doing better than when he was originally diagnosed last month. During Biden’s first round, “we’d talked about a little bit of fatigue, we’d talked about pain, you know, there was a little bit of discomfort. That didn’t happen,’ she said.
Jean-Pierre continued to dance around the exact nature of what the president was going through while rattling off minor symptoms.
“And there’s some, you know, you still have a dry cough, you still know you have a little sniffle that lasts a little bit longer,” she said.
“A lot of us have had COVID before and they tend to have ongoing symptoms and that’s what I’m talking about,” she said, speaking to a press corps that, like much of the country, experienced a series of Covid -cases has seen pandemic.
Pressing on whether Biden was still experiencing some things, she said “of course” he was — and then pointed out Biden’s chronic dry cough that preceded his positive tests for COVID.
Her comments prompted repeated questions from the press about the exact nature of the president’s symptoms, what he was doing in isolation and when he would resume travel.
Biden’s dog Commander was his companion. First Lady Jill Biden is in Wilmington
Biden on Sunday posted video from the COVID isolation in which he FaceTimes with attorneys on Capitol Hill instead of going there to lobby for the PACT bill, which was defeated by Republicans and aims to kill veterans help those affected by burns and other toxic chemicals
It all comes at a critical time in Washington, where Biden is in sight of scoring some political victories even as he avoids sitting down with lawmakers.
West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin (D), who had been negotiating directly with Biden for months, announced last week that he had reached an agreement with Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer on a package that would generate $739 billion in revenue. dollars and spends $433 billion on climate and other measures and about $300 billion on deficit reduction.
But Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), whose vote would be crucial for passage, has yet to greenlight the “reconciliation” proposal, which is protected from Republican filibusters.
And Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is on a tour of Asia, with aggressive comments from Beijing on reports that she plans to visit Taiwan.