Former President Barack Obama said on Sunday that he had tested positive with COVID-19. After spending part of the winter in Hawaii, Obama, 60, had lately returned to Washington, DC. According to a source close to him, he tested positive in DC.
After then-President Donald Trump claimed he tested positive in October 2020, before vaccines were widely accessible in the US, Obama became the second US President to get the illness.
Barack Obama Recently Endorses US Vaccination Campaign
Throughout the pandemic, Obama has been a strong supporter of public health efforts. He canceled his 60th birthday party on Martha's Vineyard last August due to concerns about the Delta variant at the time, according to CNN.
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.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) March 13, 2022
It’s a reminder to get vaccinated if you haven’t already, even as cases go down.
In a one-minute film broadcast last March, Obama, along with past presidents Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and the former first ladies, endorsed the US vaccination drive and shared what they missed about life before the pandemic.
After Democrats chastised Donald Trump's administration for holding several maskless events at the White House, conservative political opponents slammed the former president for planning an outdoor party - where attendees were required to be vaccinated - that was expected to draw hundreds of guests.
In a tweet on Sunday, Obama reaffirmed his support for the vaccine, saying that his positive result was "a reminder to get vaccinated if you haven't already, even as cases go down."
Despite a prominent anti-vaccination lobby in the country, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that more than 80% of all Americans aged five and up have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
According to the (CDC), daily case counts in the United States have dropped dramatically, with an average of roughly 35,000 cases per day in mid-March, compared to an average of 810,000 cases per day in mid-January. NDTV reported.
US COVID-19 Cases
The death toll in the country now stands at 965,000. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services, the total number of confirmed cases in the United States has topped 79.4 million. Hospitalization rates are steadily declining across the country.
According to federal data, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 positive Americans fell below 30,000 for the first time since July on Thursday. Since the nation's high, when 160,000 people were hospitalized roughly two months ago, the number of individuals requiring care for the virus has dropped by more than 80%.
According to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, just 2% of the US population - roughly 7 million people - live in a county with a "high" COVID-19 community level. The others are in "low" or "medium" community levels, where masking isn't recommended, and immunocompromised persons and those at high risk of severe disease are encouraged to take extra precautions against COVID-19, respectively.
President Joe Biden stated earlier this month in his first State of the Union speech that the US is "moving forward safely" toward a less disruptive phase of the pandemic. The president discussed his strategy for overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic during his speech, as per ABC News.
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