Tested Negative For COVID-19 Last Tuesday, President Biden Enacts Strict COVID-19 Security Protocols At The White House

President Joe Biden receives a second booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in March 2022. (Wikimedia Commons/Office of the President of the United States)

JAKARTA - United States President Joe Biden had strict COVID-19 protocols at the White House, where he was regularly tested for COVID-19, before announcing that he was positive for COVID-19 Thursday.

US President Joe Biden has tested positive for COVID-19, has mild symptoms and will self-isolate 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.

President Biden established strict COVID-19 safety protocols at the White House, urging Americans to take the virus seriously and campaigning for everyone to get fully vaccinated.

The White House said President Biden was tested for COVID-19 regularly. Anyone who meets him or travels with him undergoes a COVID-19 test first. Lastly, President Biden tested negative for COVID-19 on Tuesday.

President Biden has also been known to have removed his mask at public events in recent months, with the White House lifting the mask requirement in March.

"It is not in their interest or in the public interest not to be vaccinated. We have the capacity to control them. They must be vaccinated now," President Biden told reporters at Joint Air Base Andrews, referring to people who were not vaccinated Wednesday.

The President of the United States is undergoing treatment for COVID-19 using Pfizer's antiviral drug, Paxlovid, with only mild symptoms and has received the full vaccine and booster dose.

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.