Former President Barack Obama said over the weekend that he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Driving the news: “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,” Obama tweeted Sunday.
- “It’s a reminder to get vaccinated if you haven’t already, even as cases go down,” he said.
Symptoms: Obama described himself as having a “scratchy throat” — a prominent COVID-19 symptom associated with the omicron variant of the novel coronavirus, as I previously reported for the Deseret News.
The bigger picture: There have been more than 79 million COVID-19 cases in the United States since the COVID-19 pandemic began more than two years ago, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- More than 964,000 people have died from COVID-19 during that time as well, according to the CDC.