White House: First lady Jill Biden tests positive for COVID-19

Aug. 16 (UPI) — First Lady Jill Biden tested positive for COVID-19 Monday evening after initially testing negative earlier in the day, the White House said in a statement.

President Joe Biden tested positive for the BA.5 subvariant of the coronavirus last month and after recovering suffered a rebound infection. He was cleared to resume normal duties on Aug. 7.

“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,” the White House said. “She tested negative again on a rapid antigen test, but a PCR test came back positive.

“The first lady is double-vaccinated, twice boosted, and only experiencing mild symptoms. She has been prescribed a course of Paxlovid and, following CDC guidance, will isolate from others for at least five days.”

The White House said close contacts of the first lady have been notified of her condition. She is currently staying at a private residence in South Carolina and will return home after she receives two consecutive negative COVID-19 tests, officials said.

COVID-19 case confirmations have fallen under the seven-day moving average of 100,000 over the past several days, totaling 95,209 as of Sunday, according to the Centers for Disease Control of Prevention. The seven-day moving average of cases had been 125,281 as of July 13.

The seven-day moving average for cases in the United States had been as low as 24,800 in late March and as high as 681,000 in early January.