US President Joe Biden has tested positive for COVID-19, forcing him to cancel a campaign event in Las Vegas as pressure mounts on him to drop his re-election bid due to his age.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that Biden, 81, was experiencing “mild symptoms” and would fly home to Delaware, where he will “self-isolate and continue to fully perform all of his duties.”
Jean-Pierre said Biden planned to spend a long weekend at his beach house in Delaware. It was unclear how long the illness would keep him off the campaign trail.
Minutes after the announcement, the president's motorcade headed to the Las Vegas airport and, as he boarded Air Force One, Biden told reporters: “Good, I feel good.”
Dr. Kevin O'Connor, the president's physician, said in a statement that Biden “presented this afternoon with upper respiratory symptoms, including rhinorrhea.” [runny nose] and non-productive cough, with general malaise.”
After testing positive for COVID-19, Biden was prescribed the antiviral drug Paxlovid and has already taken his first dose, O'Connor said.
News of Biden’s illness was first shared by the executive director of Unidos US, a Latino civil rights group, in Las Vegas. Biden was scheduled to speak at the group’s convention Wednesday afternoon as part of an effort to mobilize Hispanic voters ahead of the November election.
Janet Murguia, executive director of Unidos, told guests that the president had sent his apologies and was unable to attend because he tested positive for the virus.
“He asked me to tell my people that we are not going to get rid of him so quickly. We will have the opportunity to hear from him directly in the future,” he said.
Groans could be heard in the conference room at the news.
'Serious concerns'
The president's diagnosis comes amid intense scrutiny of his health and endurance following a disastrous debate with former President Donald Trump that sparked a wave of concern among Democrats that Biden is not up to the rigors of winning another presidential term.
ABC News reported Wednesday that Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told Biden that it would be better for the country and the party if he ended his reelection campaign. ABC News also said that House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has also expressed similar views directly to Biden.
In a statement, Schumer’s office called the report “idle speculation” and said Schumer “conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden on Saturday.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Democratic U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff became the 20th congressional Democrat to publicly call for Biden to drop out of the race.
“While the decision to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch,” Schiff said in a statement. “And in doing so, secure his legacy of leadership by allowing us to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election.”
A poll released by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research on Wednesday showed nearly two-thirds of Democrats believed Biden should drop out of the race and allow the party to choose a new nominee.
Only about three in 10 Democrats also said they were extremely or very confident that Biden has the mental capacity to serve effectively as president, down slightly from the 40 percent who said the same in a February poll.
However, The Associated Press and other US media have reported that Democrats are looking to hold a virtual vote to formally nominate Biden as their nominee in the first week of August. That is before the Democratic National Convention, which is being held in Chicago from August 19 to 22 and is normally where the party's presidential nominee would be confirmed.
Biden, meanwhile, has been defiant in the face of calls to drop out of the race, telling an interviewer that only the “Lord Almighty” could persuade him to leave.
Al Jazeera's John Hendren, reporting from Washington, DC, said the timing of Biden's illness “couldn't be worse” for the president and said it was critical for the White House to “be crystal clear” about his health.
“That’s because there is deep concern across the country that Biden’s mental and physical condition has been hidden from the public, that he’s been hidden among a small group of aides, that he has long been off the grid for major network television interviews and that he hasn’t been touring in a major way until recently,” Hendren said.
The US leader last tested positive for COVID-19 twice in the summer of 2022, when he had a primary case and a rebound case of the virus.
Biden has been vaccinated and is currently receiving the recommended annual booster dose against COVID-19. The vaccines have proven highly effective in limiting severe illness and deaths from the virus, which has killed more than a million people in the United States since the pandemic began in 2020.
Paxlovid has been shown to reduce the chances of severe illness and death from COVID-19 when prescribed in the early days of an infection, but it has also been associated with rebound infections, where the virus returns a few days after it has cleared.
Health officials have reported a recent rise in emergency room visits and hospitalizations for COVID-19. There has also been a sharp increase in positive test results across much of the country, particularly in the southwestern United States.
