WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden tested positive again Saturday morning for COVID-19 as part of a virus “rebound” that patients treated with Paxlovid sometimes experience, his doctor said.
Biden has experienced no reemergence of symptoms, Kevin O’Connor, physician to the president, said in a letter, and as a result, his doctors will not restart medical treatment.
Still, Biden will return to isolation, O’Connor said.
More: ‘I’m feeling great’: President Biden tests negative for COVID-19, ends isolation
Paxlovid is an at-home antiviral therapy for those at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19. Biden, 79, was at risk because of his age. He has been vaccinated and boosted against the virus.
Biden made his first public appearance Wednesday after testing positive for COVID-19 for the first time July 21. The president tested negative Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, prompting him to end isolation, and again on Thursday and Friday mornings, according to O’Connor.
Some people who have received Paxlovid have gotten rebound COVID-19 infections, which can happen as soon as a few days after testing negative.
In the small share of Paxlovid patients whose infections come back, they don’t get sick enough to require hospitalization, White House COVID-19 response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha has said.
Reach Joey Garrison on Twitter @joeygarrison.
