Richard Arnold: US correspondent as President Joe Biden tests positive for Covid

Joe Biden has tested positive for Covid-19. The President, 79, is experiencing "very mild symptoms", the White House said in a statement, as new variants of the highly contagious virus are challenging the nation's efforts to get back to normal after two and a half years of pandemic disruptions. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden has begun taking Paxlovid, an antiviral drug designed to reduce the severity of the disease. He was isolating at the White House and "continuing to carry out all of his duties fully," she said. Biden's physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, said in a letter that Biden had a runny nose and "fatigue, with an occasional dry cough, which started yesterday evening." "Folks, I'm doing great. Thanks for your concern," Biden tweeted. He added that he was "keeping busy!" Biden, 79, is fully vaccinated, after getting two doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine shortly before taking office, a first booster shot in September and an additional dose March 30. Jean-Pierre described the president's symptoms as "very mild" and said Biden had been in contact with members of the White House staff by phone and would participate in his planned meetings "via phone and Zoom from the residence." The White House took steps to show that the president was busy working despite his diagnosis, with Biden tweeting out a picture of himself making calls from the treaty room of the White House. The president spoke by phone to lawmakers in Pennsylvania to apologize for having to cancel his planned trip Thursday to the city of Wilkes-Barre to promote his crime prevention plans. Biden also called South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn to wish him a happy birthday and congratulate him on receiving an award from the NAACP. O'Connor wrote in his letter about the president's treatment plan: "I anticipate that he will respond favorably" to Paxlovid "as most maximally protected patients do." Jean-Pierre said Biden had last tested negative on Tuesday, and he will stay isolated until he tests negative again. First lady Jill Biden, speaking to reporters as she arrived for a school visit in Detroit, said she'd just gotten off the phone with her husband. "He's doing fine," she said. "He's feeling good." Yesterday, Biden raised eyebrows by mistakenly saying he had cancer in an awkward slip-of-the-tongue. He made the eyebrow-raising comment during a speech in Somerset, Massachusetts, as he announced a slew of executive actions to tackle the "climate crisis". Biden was telling an anecdote about his mother driving him to school as a child. "And because it was a four-lane highway that was accessible, my mother drove us rather than us be able to walk," he said. "And guess what? The first frost, you know what was happening? You had to put on your windshield wipers to get literally the oil slick off the window. That's why I and so damn many other people I grew up with have cancer, and why, for the longest time, Delaware had the highest cancer rate in the nation." Conservative website Townhall pointed out that Biden told the same story in April, referring to "asthma" rather than cancer. - with news.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.