US President Joe Biden, 79, is experiencing mild symptoms after testing positive for Covid-19, and will continue to discharge his responsibilities while working in isolation, the White House said on Thursday

In a statement, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Biden, who has been fully vaccinated and twice boosted, was experiencing “very mild symptoms”.

He had also begun taking Paxlovid, an oral antiviral therapy which helps in fighting the infection.

Biden — who returned from a trip to West Asia last week and then travelled to Massachusetts on Wednesday — has isolated himself in the White House but will continue working.

“He has been in contact with members of the White House staff by phone this morning, and will participate in his planned meetings at the White House this morning via phone and Zoom from the residence,” the statement said.

In a separate letter publicly released by White House, Biden’s personal physician, Kevin O’Connor said that as a part of the routine screening process for the President, Sars-CoV-2 was first detected first by antigen testing, with results subsequently confirmed with a PCR test. He added that Biden was experiencing mild symptoms, “mostly rhinorrea (or ‘runny nose’) and fatigue, with an occasional dry cough”.

The physician said he anticipates that the President would respond favourably to treatment, as “most maximally protected patients do”.

“Early use of Paxlovid in this case provides additional protection against severe disease”.

The President has got Covid at a time when cases are rising across the US, with the highly transmissible BA.5 variant, a subvariant of Omicron, becoming the predominant strain in the country.

The daily case average has gone up to over 127,000 on July 20, a 14% increase compared to two weeks ago. There has also been a 17% increase in hospitalisation rates, and about 400 people are dying everyday due to Covid-19 — a dip from the high death rates that the US has seen in the past two years, but an increase since early July.

Biden’s positive test result comes at a particularly difficult time for him politically. His popularity ratings are at an all-time low. Inflation continues to be a pressing concern. His climate agenda has collapsed in the US Congress due to opposition from conservatives within his own party. Democrats are widely expected to lose control of the House of Representatives in the midterms later this November. And the war in Ukraine continues with Russia having made military gains in the east in recent weeks.