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Jill Biden tests positive for COVID-19

First Lady Jill Biden rides her bicycle along the beach while on vacation in Kiawah Island, South Carolina, on August 14, 2022.
Nicholas Kamm
/
AFP via Getty Images
First Lady Jill Biden rides her bicycle along the beach while on vacation in Kiawah Island, South Carolina, on August 14, 2022.

First lady Jill Biden, 71, has tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing mild symptoms, according to a statement from her spokeswoman, Elizabeth Alexander.

"After testing negative for COVID-19 on Monday during her regular testing cadence, the First Lady began to develop cold-like symptoms late in the evening. She tested negative again on a rapid antigen test, but a PCR test came back positive," the statement said.

The first lady, who is double-vaccinated and twice boosted, has been prescribed a course of Paxlovid. Per CDC guidance, Biden will remain at a private residence in Kiawah Island, South Carolina and isolate from others for at least five days.

The statement said she plans to return home after receiving two consecutive negative COVID tests.

The White House said President Biden, who has been vacationing with his wife and family, is considered a close contact and will mask while indoors for the next 10 days.

Biden, who tested positive for COVID at the end of July and experienced a rebound case, has tested negative for COVID on an antigen test.

Biden is scheduled to return to Washington Tuesday afternoon to sign the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats' sweeping spending bill that aims to tackle climate change while lowering the deficit and the cost of prescription drugs. It passed without any Republican support.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Barbara Sprunt is a producer on NPR's Washington desk, where she reports and produces breaking news and feature political content. She formerly produced the NPR Politics Podcast and got her start in radio at as an intern on NPR's Weekend All Things Considered and Tell Me More with Michel Martin. She is an alumnus of the Paul Miller Reporting Fellowship at the National Press Foundation. She is a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C., and a Pennsylvania native.