Looking healthy and complaining only of a scratchy throat, former President Barack Obama took to social media to announce he has tested positive for COVID 19.
Obama is the second United States President to test positive for the virus after former President Donald Trump tested positive in October 2020 before vaccines were extensively available to the American public. Obama is also one of many politicians and celebrities to test positive for the virus in the last couple of months.
On his Twitter account, he posted, “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.”
He continued, “It’s a reminder to get vaccinated if you haven’t already, even as cases go down.”
According to CNN, 60-year-old Obama recently returned to Washington, DC, after he spent most of the winter in Hawaii, where he was born. He tested positive in the nation’s capital.
Obama has not been shy about his support of the COVID-19 vaccine and other science that has supported ways to curb the positivity rate.
In August 2021, Obama originally planned to have hundreds of his homeboys and homegirls for his 60th birthday party in Martha’s Vineyard, but thanks to the new Delta Variant, he decided to scale back the party to include only close family and friends.
Near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020, Obama called the Trump administration’s response to the virus an “absolute chaotic disaster.” Strong words from the former president.
Following a recent surge in cases during the winter, driven mostly by the Omarion variant (you read that correctly), the country has seen weekly averages decrease, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The CDC also announced in February that they would be relaxing its guidelines for indoor masking, which led to big cities like New York City and Chicago to end their mask and vaccine mandate for schools and businesses.