WH COVID coordinator Ashish Jha: None of 17 close contacts with Biden have tested positive

None of the 17 people who had close contact with Joe Biden tested positive for the disease around the time of his COVID diagnosis, White House coronavirus coordinator Ashish Jha said.

“Since late yesterday, again, 17 is the number we’re tracking in the White House medical department — none of them tested positive late yesterday,” Jha told ABC’s This Week program Sunday morning.

“Obviously all those people have been contacted,” he added. ‘They follow’ CDC protocol. And we continue to follow them.’

Vice President Kamala Harris and first lady Jill Biden are among those considered to be close contacts, along with some senior staffers and members of Congress.

Democratic Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, along with Democratic Representatives Jake Auchincloss and Bill Keating, traveled with Biden on Air Force One Wednesday for the trip to Somerset, Massachusetts.

White House “close contact” protocol requires a person to be within six feet of the person who tested positive for more than 15 minutes. This is the same guideline issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Jha noted that COVID-19 protocols were already “tight,” noting that Biden would often meet with people outside.

The president’s doctor said in a Sunday update on his condition that Biden’s symptoms are improving “significantly,” but he still has a sore throat three days after the initial diagnosis of COVID-19.

“His voice stays a little deep,” White House physician Kevin O’Connor noted in his letter to Karine Jean-Pierre, Biden’s press officer.

The sore throat, says Dr. O’Connor, is “probably the result of lymphoid activation as his body clears the virus, so that’s encouraging.”

‘His rhinorrhoea’ [runny nose]coughing and body aches are significantly reduced,” he noted.

White House coronavirus response coordinator Ashish Jha also said on Sunday morning that Biden is feeling “much, much better” after his COVID-19 diagnosis.

“I checked in with his team late last night,” Jha told CBS Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan. “He felt good. Yesterday he had a good day. He has a viral syndrome, so an upper respiratory infection, and he’s doing fine.’

“So we didn’t get any updates this morning, but last night he felt much, much better,” Jha said hours before O’Connor released his update.

Biden received his positive diagnosis during a routine COVID test conducted on Thursday.

When news of his diagnosis came out, the president said he was fine and working from isolation in the White House.

dr. O’Connor said Sunday morning that Biden had completed his third day of PAXLOVID treatment on Saturday night.

Biden, the doctor said, will continue to isolate, as he has the highly contagious BA.5 variant.

Jha said the emergence of the BA.5 variant leads to more need for continuous indoor masking.

“Masks work, right?” he said. “They’re obviously slowing down the transmission. So in high-transmission areas, I think it’s very sensible for people to wear masks indoors, especially if they’re in crowded, poorly ventilated areas.”

The doctor said 80 percent of current COVID infections in the US are this BA. 5 variant.

‘Thank God our vaccines and therapies work well against’ [this variant]That’s why I think the president is doing well,” he said on Sunday.

The president’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, in a Saturday update on Biden’s condition, wrote that his previous symptoms, including a runny nose and cough, have become “less bothersome.”

His earlier notes after Biden’s diagnosis Thursday did not mention a sore throat or body aches.

Biden’s vital signs, such as blood pressure and respiratory rate, “remain perfectly normal” and his oxygen saturation levels are “excellent” with “no shortness of breath at all,” the doctor wrote in his latest update.

“His lungs stay clean,” he added.

O’Connor said the preliminary DNA sequencing results that indicated Biden was infected with the BA.5 variant did not affect his treatment plan in any way.

Jha promised on Sunday that the White House would continue to provide updates on the president’s condition and whether he may have long-term symptoms.

“We think it’s very important for the American people to know how well their president is doing,” he said.

“Obviously if he has persistent symptoms, obviously if any of them are getting in the way of his ability to perform his duties, we will disclose that to the American people early and often.” But I suspect this will be a course of COVID that we’ve seen in many Americans who have been fully vaccinated, double boosted, and treated with those tools in hand,” Jha added.

“The president is doing well and we trust he will continue to do so.”