Biden tests positive for the coronavirus

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden tested positive on Thursday for the coronavirus, raising health concerns for the 79-year-old president and underscoring how the virus remains a persistent threat in a country trying to put the pandemic in the past.

In a statement, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Biden “tested positive for COVID-19. He is fully vaccinated and twice boosted and experiencing very mild symptoms.”

Biden is receiving Paxlovid, an anti-viral drug used to minimize the severity of COVID-19, Jean-Pierre said. The president will isolate at the White House but will “continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time,” she said.

Biden’s positive test came amid a flurry of virus cases as the nation grapples with new subvariants that doctors say are highly contagious and more easily evade the protections provided by coronavirus vaccinations.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, announced on Tuesday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus and would not appear in person at what could be the committee’s last hearing of the summer.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.