US President Joe Biden Tests Positive For COVID-19: Experiences Very Mild Symptoms, Isolates At White House While Working

JAKARTA - United States President Joe Biden has tested positive for COVID-19, has mild symptoms and will undergo isolation at the White House while continuing to work.

Building Doctor Kevin O'Connor said in a statement released Thursday that President Biden had a runny nose, fatigue and an occasional dry cough, symptoms he began experiencing Wednesday night. He said President Biden had started using the antiviral treatment Paxlovid.

"He was fully vaccinated and twice received a booster, experiencing very mild symptoms," press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

The White House will provide daily updates on Biden's health, and he will follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, while in isolation at the White House but still working, Karine said.

US COVID-19 cases rose more than 25 percent in the last month, according to CDC data, as the rapidly spreading BA.5 subvariant has taken over.

Able to evade the immune protection afforded by either vaccination or previous infection, BA.5 has been the dominant subvariant in the United States since at least early July and has driven a spike in new infections globally.