First lady tests positive with rebound Covid case

First lady Jill Biden on Wednesday tested positive again for Covid-19, a so-called "rebound" case of the virus similar to the one her husband dealt with earlier this summer.

“After testing negative on Tuesday, just now, the First Lady has tested positive for COVID-19 by antigen testing. This represents a ‘rebound’ positivity,” Kelsey Donohue, the first lady’s deputy communications director, said in a statement Wednesday.

Biden has had no reemergence of symptoms and will remain in Delaware to self-isolate, Donohue said. The White House Medical Unit has identified and contacted close contacts of the first lady, she said. President Joe Biden, who cleared his own case of Covid earlier this month, tested negative for the virus Wednesday morning. Because he is considered a close contact of the first lady's, the president will wear a mask for the next 10 days when indoors and in close proximity with others, a White House official said.

Jill Biden initially tested positive for Covid on Aug. 16, roughly a week after the president ended isolation for his own rebound case. She experienced mild symptoms and was self-isolating in South Carolina — where she and her family had been vacationing — until Sunday, when she tested negative for the virus and joined the president in Rehoboth Beach, Del. Both the president and first lady are among the subset of Covid patients treated with Paxlovid to suffer rebound infections, a recurrence of the virus that occurs relatively shortly after it first appears cleared.

“After isolating for five days and receiving negative results from two consecutive Covid-19 tests, the first lady will depart South Carolina later today for Delaware,” Elizabeth Alexander, the first lady’s communications director, said in a statement on Sunday.