Former US President Obama tests positive for COVID-19
Former US President Barack Obama had tested positive for COVID-19.
“I’ve had a scratchy throat for a couple days, but am feeling fine otherwise,” he announced on his official Twitter account.
Obama added that former first lady Michelle Obama has tested negative, thanks to the vaccine and booster they got.
I just tested positive for COVID. I’ve had a scratchy throat for a couple days, but am feeling fine otherwise. Michelle and I are grateful to be vaccinated and boosted, and she has tested negative.
It’s a reminder to get vaccinated if you haven’t already, even as cases go down.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) March 13, 2022
The former president had recently returned to Washington, DC, after spending much of the winter in Hawaii.
The diagnosis makes Obama the second US President known to contract the virus after then-President Donald Trump announced he tested positive in October 2020, which was before vaccines were widely available in the US.
Obama has been a champion of public health measures throughout the pandemic. He plus fellow former presidents Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton — and the former first ladies — appeared together in a one-minute video released last March, endorsing the US vaccination campaign and sharing what they missed about pre-pandemic life.
“This vaccine means hope,” Obama said in the video. “It will protect you and those you love from this dangerous and deadly disease.”
In August, Obama scaled back his 60th birthday celebrations due to the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus.
Despite a vocal anti-vaccination constituency in the country, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say more than 80 per cent of all people ages five and older in the United States have had at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose.
US daily case counts have fallen off sharply, according to the (CDC), with an average of around 35,000 cases per day in mid-March compared to a peak of an average of 810,000 cases per day in mid-January.