President Biden tested positive for COVID-19 Thursday morning, less than 24 hours after traveling to Massachusetts to give a speech on climate policy.
Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that the president is taking antiviral drug Paxlovid and experiencing “very mild symptoms.” The plan, she said, is for Biden to quarantine in the White House while carrying out his usual duties by phone or Zoom.
The president’s positive test result arrived a short time after Biden flew to and from Massachusetts on an airplane with Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey and Congressmen Jake Auchincloss and Bill Keating.
Auchincloss, whose district stretches from Fall River to Boston’s western suburbs, described the flight during a radio interview on WBSM’s SouthCoast Tonight before he knew Biden had COVID.
“For a while it was me and Senator Markey and Senator Warren and Bill Keating at the conference table with some of the president’s staff discussing climate legislation,” Auchincloss told WBSM. “And then the president himself came in and hung out with us for about half an hour on the airplane.”
Auchincloss and Biden were photographed together without masks during the plane ride.
Auchincloss and the South Coast’s other Congressman, Bill Keating, whose district includes New Bedford, both said through spokespeople that they tested negative for COVID before and after flying with the president.
Sen. Ed Markey said he is taking a COVID test today. Sen. Elizabeth Warren did not respond to a request for comment.
Ben Berke is the South Coast Bureau Reporter for The Public’s Radio. He can be reached at bberke@thepublicsradio.org. Follow him on Twitter @BenBerke6.
