Biden took the PCR test as part of a routine screening program, Kevin C. O’Connor, the president’s physician, wrote in a letter.

The president began experiencing mild symptoms including a runny nose, fatigue and an occasional cough Wednesday evening, according to the doctor. O’Connor has recommended that Biden begin Paxlovid treatment while he isolates.

“The President is fully vaccinated and twice-boosted, so I anticipate that he will respond favorably, as most maximally protected patients do,” the physician wrote.

The announcement arrived just before Biden was scheduled to travel to Pennsylvania for an event to discuss gun violence as well as attend a Democratic fundraiser in the evening. It also comes just after Biden’s return from a trip to the Middle East and as the highly contagious BA.5 variant has raised concerns about another wave of infections across the globe.

In his first tweet since testing positive, Biden lightheartedly reassured the public that he is “doing great” and thanked people for their concern.

“Keeping busy!” Biden wrote, referencing a phone call with Pennsylvania legislators in which he apologized for canceling a scheduled appearance on Thursday. He had planned to visit Scranton to propose a steep increase in police funding, the Associated Press reported.

Vice President Kamala Harris tested negative for Covid on Thursday morning, according to a White House official. She was last with Biden on Tuesday.

“She spoke to the President by phone this morning,” the official said. “The schedule will continue as planned. The Vice President will remain masked following the advice of the White House medical team.”

Before Biden’s diagnosis, Harris was scheduled to spend the day in North Carolina, touring a community computer lab and hosting an abortion roundtable with state legislators, before returning to Washington in the evening. No changes have been announced.

The first lady Jill Biden tested negative for Covid on Thursday morning, said White House spokesperson Michael LaRosa. But because she is a close contact, she will follow CDC guidance on masking and distancing and plans to keep to her scheduled visits Thursday to Michigan and Georgia.

“I’m on the road in Detroit today, but I spoke to Joe earlier and he’s feeling fine, just experiencing a few mild symptoms,” she said in a tweet that also confirmed her negative result.

Biden joins a growing list of public officials who have tested positive for Covid in recent months, including his chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, Vice President Kamala Harris, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Following the president’s diagnosis, politicians on social media from both sides of the aisle expressed their sympathies and wished him a quick recovery. Among those was Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who has been critical of the Covid vaccine.

“Heidi & I are lifting up President Joe Biden in prayer right now. May God’s healing hand be upon him, may Covid pass quickly, and may he have a swift and full recovery,” Cruz wrote in a tweet.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, another vocal opponent of Biden’s Covid policies, said he “was sorry to hear that President Biden has tested positive for COVID-19. Wishing him a speedy recovery.”

Several Democratic leaders pushed those who haven’t been vaccinated or boosted to do so, using the opportunity to remind people that the pandemic is ongoing.

“A reminder to all: this pandemic is not over and COVID-19 is still spreading. If you haven’t gotten your vaccine and/or booster shot, please do,” Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth said in a tweet.

The announcement of his infection comes as the White House is trying to manage crises on multiple fronts. It also occurs as the administration has sought to project a new phase in the pandemic fight, one in which the country would learn to largely live with and manage the virus.

It’ll be crucial for the Biden administration to show that the president can perform his duties in the coming days, former White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in an interview on MSNBC.

“They’ve been preparing for this probably for several months now given the percentage of people in the country who have tested positive,” Psaki said. “What they need to do over the next couple of days is show him working and show him still active and serving as president, and I’m certain they’ll likely do that.”

Roughly 126,000 new infections are being reported every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up roughly 26 percent from one month ago, and the highest total since mid-February. These numbers are widely understood to be undercounted due to the proliferation and ease of at-home testing, for those who test at all.

Case counts are still below the peak of the Delta surge last summer and well below Omicron’s winter wave, when as many as 1 million Americans were contracting Covid every day.

The White House has continued to aggressively push for Americans to either get vaccinated or get their booster shots. And there had been early concern within the West Wing that, were the president to become infected, it would give fodder to vaccine skeptics and Covid-mandate critics, as West Wing Playbook reported in January.

The White House has also consistently battled outside concerns and commentary about Biden’s age and health. The president, 79, received a booster dose of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine in September and a follow-up booster in late March. Though he has suffered various recent health ailments, his physician declared him “fit for duty” after a physical this past fall.

Data published by the CDC shows that third doses are at least 90 percent effective at keeping Americans infected by the Omicron variant out of the hospital. The extra shots are even more important for adults 50 and older.

While the risk of the president developing severe disease is significantly reduced because of his vaccination status, the protection isn’t bulletproof. Older adults are still at higher risk of developing severe Covid.

The president’s access to top medical care also lowers his risk of a severe bout of Covid. Harris also received the oral antiviral Paxlovid after testing positive.

Biden’s infection is the second time a U.S. president has been personally hit with the virus. Then-President Donald Trump tested positive for Covid in fall of 2020 — before vaccines were available — after the White House hosted a suspected “superspreader event.” After more than 200 people, mainly maskless, attended the Sept. 26 event at the White House Rose Garden, where Trump announced his nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, nearly a dozen people later tested positive.

Trump, who repeatedly downplayed the virus and often resisted wearing a mask, was sicker with Covid than was publicly acknowledged at the time, The New York Times reported in February 2021. He was taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as officials worried he would have to be put on a ventilator because of dangerously low oxygen levels and lung problems. He received drugs not widely available at the time, such as Regeneron’s antibody cocktail and the antiviral drug remdesivir, during his three-day stay in the hospital.

Trump reportedly tested positive for Covid three days before his first presidential debate in September 2020 with Biden, according to a new book by his former chief of staff Mark Meadows. Meadows said Trump received a negative test shortly after the positive test and resumed normal activities. Trump has called the story “fake news.”

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