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First lady Jill Biden tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday and President Biden’s test results have come back negative, according to the White House.

Jill Biden, 72, is “currently experiencing only mild symptoms,” her communications director Elizabeth Alexander said in a statement.

“She will remain at their home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware,” Alexander added. 

The first lady, who previously received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as well as a pair of booster shots, has tested positive for the coronavirus at least twice before. 

Joe Biden, 80, was administered a COVID-19 test Monday night following the first lady’s positive test, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. 

“The President tested negative. The President will test at a regular cadence this week and monitor for symptoms,” Jean-Pierre said in a statement. 

Jill Biden is experiencing “mild symptoms,” according to the White House.AFP via Getty Images

The first lady accompanied her husband to Florida on Saturday where the couple toured areas hard-hit by Hurricane Idalia. They were joined on the ground by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and met with several first responders, federal personnel and local officials during the short visit. 

The Bidens ventured to their Rehoboth Beach, Del., house after the Florida trip and the president spent part of Sunday at mass at St. Edmond Roman Catholic Church.

President Biden tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday night. AFP via Getty Images

The president departed Delaware early Labor Day Monday to speak at a rally for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) in Philadelphia.

He is slated to travel to India from Sept. 7 to Sept. 10 for the Group of 20 Summit, a trip that will include a stop in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The first lady’s first positive COVID-19 test occurred on Aug. 16, 2022, after developing “cold-like symptoms” near the end of the first family’s stay on Kiawah Island, S.C.

The first couple spent the weekend in Florida and Delaware, before President Biden visited Philadelphia on Monday and then returned to the White House.REUTERS

She once again tested positive in a “rebound” case of the virus on Aug. 24, 2022, but experienced “no reemergence of symptoms.”

Joe Biden, who has also been vaccinated for the virus at least four times, tested positive for COVID-19 on July 21, 2022, after returning from a trip to the Middle East. 

The president was treated with antiviral drug Paxlovid and experienced “mild symptoms,”  including cough, runny nose and fatigue, according to his physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor. 

He was cleared for travel 17 days after testing positive. 

The president will test this week and “monitor for symptoms,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.AFP via Getty Images

A new variant of COVID-19, dubbed the Pirola variant, has been detected by doctors in Ohio, Virginia, Michigan, New York, and Texas, but experts are unsure if it is more transmissible or more lethal than other variants. 

Also referred to as BA.2.86, Pirola is a highly mutated variant of the Omicron strain of the coronavirus, which emerged in 2021 and became the dominant strain in the US. 

“When Omicron hit in the winter of 2021, there was a huge rise in COVID-19 cases because it was so different from the Delta variant, and it evaded immunity from both natural infection and vaccination,” infectious disease specialist Dr. Scott Roberts said in a Yale Medicine bulletin.

The bulletin states that “there is some reason to worry, in that this variant … has more than 30 mutations to its spike protein,” referring to the proteins on the surface of the virus that allow it to enter and infect human cells.

“Such a high number of mutations is notable,” Roberts said. “When we went from XBB.1.5 to EG.5, that was maybe one or two mutations. But these massive shifts, which we also saw from Delta to Omicron, are worrisome.”

The White House did not specify which variant the first lady has been infected with.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week projected an acceleration in new COVID-19 hospitalizations over the coming month, after five straight weeks of increasing hospital admissions related to the virus.

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