Biden’s doctor says president’s Covid symptoms ‘almost completely resolved’

A few lingering symptoms but president is recovering well, doctor says

President Joe Biden is nearly over his Covid symptoms entirely and will soon be back at 100 per cent, his doctor has said.

In a letter on Monday briefly outlining the president’s ongoing battle with the virus, Mr Biden’s White House physician Kevin C O’Connor said that the commander-in-chief’s symptoms were “amost completely resolved” and that Mr Biden was only suffering from some residual nasal congestion and hoarseness.

He went on to say that the dominant variant of Covid-19 in the US, BA5, is “particularly transmissable” but can be fought with existing treatments like Paxlovid, which the president continues to take.

The president’s “pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and temperature remain absolutely normal”, the letter continued.

Today marks Mr Biden’s fourth day on the Paxlovid treatment in isolation at the White House. Unlike his predecessor, Mr Biden was vaccinated with two booster shots at the time of his diagnosis (a vaccine had not been developed when Donald Trump caught Covid in late 2020) and as a result his symptoms were mild enough to avoid hospitalisation. Mr Trump, by comparison, was airlifted to Walter Reed Medical Center for a short stay and returned to the White House visibly suffering from lingering symptoms.

Covid continues to cause the deaths of more than 300 Americans, on average, every single day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Roughly 120,000 new cases are being reported every day.

The US is now progressing through year three of a pandemic that has killed more than 1 million Americans. Despite ongoing efforts to promote vaccination, millions remain virtually unprotected from the virus and only about two-thirds of Americans are fully vaccinated.