US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.
Credit: Reuters Photo
First lady Jill Biden tested negative for the coronavirus on Thursday, the White House said, putting an apparent end to a minor health scare that had threatened to upend President Joe Biden’s trip to a Group of 20 summit in India.
The announcement came shortly before Joe Biden departed the White House for his trip to New Delhi, where he plans to lobby world leaders on matters that include condemning Russia’s war with Ukraine and curbing China’s financial influence over poorer countries. The president also tested negative for the virus Thursday, as he had throughout the week.
The White House had announced that Jill Biden, 72, had tested positive for the virus on Monday, after she and Joe Biden spent part of the weekend at their family home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
White House officials had said she was experiencing only mild symptoms of the virus, and did not seem to anticipate her remaining contagious or requiring a lengthy recovery. They announced Wednesday that she would deliver remarks, along with Hillary Clinton, at a White House event next week celebrating this year’s Praemium Imperiale laureates, recipients of a prestigious award presented by the Japan Art Association for lifetime achievement.
The brief episode demonstrated the awkward status COVID has assumed since Joe Biden took office, with the country having largely returned to pre-pandemic routines but encountering reminders of the virus’s continued ability to disrupt normal life.
Cases have steadily risen in the United States since July, and the appearance of new variants has fueled concern that the virus could more rapidly spread in the fall and winter. But experts do not believe the United States will experience a dangerous wave of illness as it had during the height of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Hospitalizations and deaths are increasing, but the overall number remains low.