Biden finishes Covid drug treatment Paxlovid and feels well enough to exercise, White House physician says

President’s symptoms were ‘almost completely resolved’ on Monday

President Joe Biden at the White House (AP)

President Joe Biden feels well enough to resume exercise and has completed his five-day course of Paxlovid, an antiviral treatment used for Covid patients, his physician said on Tuesday.

The update comes a day after White House physician Kevin C. O’Connor announced that Mr Biden’s symptoms were “almost completely resolved” thanks to the treatment. Mr O’Connor reiterated that characterisation in his note on Tuesday.

The president suffered mild symptoms of the virus including a runny nose and hoarseness of voice thanks to his vaccination status: Mr Biden, 79, is fully vaccinated and boosted against Covid-19 which experts agree is the best way to prevent severe cases of the disease.

Mr Biden will continue to isolate from others in the White House until he tests negative for Covid-19, his staff have said, a decision that goes above and beyond CDC guidance on the issue of returning to work after a Covid diagnosis.

That decision has led some to question the agency as to whether US guidelines are too lax. Hundreds of Americans, on average, are still dying from Covid every day.

More than a million deaths from Covid have been reported across the US since the pandemic began in 2020 and the virus’s persistence has doused the flames of Mr Biden’s promises to move past the pandemic and oversee a return to normality.