Biden Tests Negative for Covid and Will End Isolation

WASHINGTON — President Biden has tested negative for the coronavirus and will end his five-day isolation, his physician said in a letter released Wednesday morning.

Dr. Kevin C. O’Connor said that the president’s symptoms from Covid-19 were “almost completely resolved” but that Mr. Biden would continue to wear a tightfitting mask for the next 10 days when he is around other people.

“He remains fever-free and he discontinued use of any acetaminophen (Tylenol) for the past 36 hours,” Dr. O’Connor said.

White House officials said Mr. Biden, who has been working in the White House residence since testing positive for Covid-19 last Thursday, would deliver a speech in the Rose Garden at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.

At the outset of his presidency, Mr. Biden took extraordinary precautions to avoid contracting Covid-19, spending much of the first few months sequestered from much of his staff. He did not travel and conducted most of his business via video calls.

But the White House dropped many of those precautions as vaccines became widely available. In recent months, the president resumed a full travel schedule, stopped wearing a mask in most cases and held crowded, in-person events.

Aides to Mr. Biden had expected that he would get infected eventually. When he did last week, officials used his mild symptoms as an example of how effective the vaccines are against serious illness and to make the case that more Americans should get initial shots and boosters.

Mr. Biden is double-vaccinated and double-boosted, officials said.

Officials also said that the availability of Paxlovid, an antiviral drug Mr. Biden received that lessens the severity of Covid-19, was another example of the progress the country had made in its fight against the virus.

Dr. O’Connor said in his letter that the president was at some risk of what doctors call a “Paxlovid rebound,” in which some patients experience a return of symptoms after testing negative. He said that, as a result, the president would be tested more frequently than usual.