Jill Biden Tests Positive For Covid Transcript

Savannah: (00:01)
We’re coming on with breaking news out of the White House this morning. NBC News has just confirmed that the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden has tested positive for COVID.

Speaker 2: (00:09)
Her diagnosis comes just weeks after the president, her husband, contracted the virus twice within the span of just 10 days, what’s known as a rebound case.

Savannah: (00:17)
Yeah. Let’s bring an NBC News Now correspondent, Maura Barrett who’s with the president while he’s vacationing on John’s Island in South Carolina. Maura, good to see you. So what do we know so far about the First Lady’s condition, how she’s doing symptom wise?

Maura Barrett: (00:31)
Savannah, we just got a statement from the Office of the First Lady confirming that she tested positive. She had initially tested negative on Monday, yesterday during a routine testing cadence that we know members in the White House go through. And then she developed cold like symptoms yesterday evening. She tested negative again on an antigen test, but tested positive on a PCR test according to the statement. The statement reminds that the First Lady is double vaccinated, twice boosted and only experiencing mild symptoms. She’s been prescribed a course of paxlovid. And following CDC guidance will isolate for others for at least five days. They also said that close contacts of the First Lady have been notified. She’s currently staying at a private residence here in South Carolina and will continue to stay here and isolate will return home after she receives two consecutive negative COVID tests.

Maura Barrett: (01:23)
Now, obviously she has been here vacationing with the president and was expected to travel back with him today for the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act. She also had other items on her schedule later this week, traveling down to Florida on Thursday and Friday to do some veteran related joining forces events. And now in terms of when we might have last seen the First Lady, she was out and about with the president this weekend. We saw her on a bike ride on Sunday and before then had been out shopping in one of the local villages here with her granddaughter and her daughter-in-law. Hunter Biden and his wife, Melissa Cohan, have both been on vacation as well. And so there have clearly been like the Office of the First Lady said, they’ve contacted her close contacts. We don’t have any specific information on who those close contacts might be.

Maura Barrett: (02:12)
But for right now, we do know that she has tested positive. We haven’t gotten any updates on her symptoms in terms of this morning, but she did develop those cold like symptoms on Monday evening. Now the present did have a breeze visit at the beach club on Kiawah Islands last night. And the first lady was not with him. So we don’t know when exactly she developed those cold like symptoms or how she’s feeling this morning, but she is in isolation. We also don’t know if this impacts the president’s schedule for the rest of the day. But according to updated CDC guidance, people with known exposures don’t need to quarantine anymore unless they test positive or also are experiencing any symptoms. And so that new CDC guidance though emphasizing that anybody with close contact should test on the fifth day and should continue to wear a high quality mask. We don’t know the specifics on whether or not the president’s recent recovery plays into that. So these are all things that we’ll be watching and obviously asking questions on as the day goes on.

Speaker 2: (03:11)
All right.

Speaker 4: (03:13)
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