The first lady is currently traveling with the president, who recently caught the coronavirus and relapsed after recovery
FILE PHOTO: Jill Biden participates in a Mother’s Day activity in Kosice, Slovakia, May 8, 2022 © AP / Susan Walsh
US First Lady Jill Biden tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, despite receiving a total of four vaccine doses. President Joe Biden recently left isolation after a lengthy bout with the virus, while Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is currently sick for the second time.
“After testing negative for Covid-19 on Monday during her regular testing cadence, the First Lady began to develop cold-like symptoms late in the evening. She tested negative again on a rapid antigen test, but a PCR test came back positive,” Biden’s communications director, Elizabeth Alexander, said in a statement.
Biden, who received her second booster shot in April, is experiencing only mild symptoms, Alexander added. She will remain in South Carolina until she receives two consecutive negative tests, and has been prescribed a course of Paxlovid, an antiviral drug manufactured by Pfizer.
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The first lady is currently in South Carolina with President Joe Biden, who is due to return to Washington later on Tuesday. President Biden, who has also been double vaccinated and received two booster shots, tested positive for Covid-19 on July 21, and stayed in isolation until he tested negative five days later. However, he tested positive again after another three days, and returned to isolation until last week.
Biden’s physician noted that the president had suffered “rebound Covid positivity,” where patients taking Paxlovid seem to recover, before falling ill again. White House Coronavirus Czar Dr. Anthony Fauci experienced the same outcome when he treated his case of Covid-19 with Paxlovid in May.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is also vaccinated and boosted, tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday, having been in contact with President Biden in late July. Austin had already caught the coronavirus in January, but insisted that his vaccination status made his symptoms “less severe than would otherwise be the case.”
