Biden tests positive for COVID in Las Vegas, hastily returns to Delaware vacation home after showing symptoms

LAS VEGAS — President Biden tested positive for COVID-19 Wednesday and abruptly boarded Air Force One to return to his vacation home in Delaware to recuperate — after glad-handing while experiencing what his doctor described as respiratory symptoms and “general malaise.”

The 81-year-old president told reporters “I feel good” as he emerged — without a mask to protect others — from the presidential limo and walked up the stairs of the jet at Harry Reid International Airport.

Biden canceled a speech to a Latino advocacy group in Sin City due to his diagnosis.

UnidosUS president Janet Murguía announced the president was ill on stage as attendees began to wonder why Biden was running 90 minutes late to speak.

The ballroom where Biden was supposed to speak reverberated with disappointment as patrons departed quickly after the Biden/COVID-19 news.

“I’m disappointed, but I understand especially if there are health issues involved,” said Francisco Lara, who works for Latino Memphis, which he said was that area’s largest Latino-serving nonprofit.

“We were here anyway today, but it would have been nice to hear from the president,” he told The Post.

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Laura Ortiz, a consultant in Memphis who also attended the luncheon, said, “I think we were all looking forward to hearing from him but we certainly understand and we wish him the best of health.”

The White House confirmed the news minutes later.

Biden taped a radio interview with Univision — set to air Thursday — shortly before the positive test was disclosed and mixed with supporters at a Mexican restaurant.

Despite experiencing symptoms, Biden posed for at least three selfies at the Original Lindo Michoacan, according to a pool report.

The nation’s oldest-ever sitting president previously tested positive for COVID-19 in July 2022 and recovered without having to be hospitalized.

Biden is facing a mounting political storm as fellow Democrats call on him to step aside following a disastrous June 27 debate against former President Donald Trump, where he repeatedly appeared confused and made puzzling remarks such as that he “finally beat Medicare.”

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The president blamed the catastrophic showing on the fact he had a cold — even though he took no precautions to avoid spreading the bug and visited an Atlanta-area Waffle House immediately after the debate.

“I had a bad, bad night. I wasn’t feeling well at all,” Biden told NBC’s Lester Holt in a Monday interview.

Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, contracted COVID-19 in 2020 before vaccines and the emergence of less-lethal strains reduced the risk of the respiratory bug, which disproportionately causes serious illness and death among the elderly.

The White House confirmed Biden’s COVID-19 diagnosis Wednesday evening.

“Earlier today following his first event in Las Vegas, President Biden tested positive for COVID-19. He is vaccinated and boosted and he is experiencing mild symptoms,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

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“He will be returning to Delaware where he will self-isolate and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time. The White House will provide regular updates on the President’s status as he continues to carry out the full duties of the office while in isolation.”

Presidential physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor said that Biden “presented this afternoon with upper respiratory symptoms, to include rhinorhea (runny nose) and non-productive cough, with general malaise.”

“He felt okay for his first event of the day, but given that he was not feeling better, point of care testing for COVID-19 was conducted, and the results were positive for the COVID-19 virus,” O’Connor said.

“Given this, the President will be self-isolating in accordance with CDC guidance for symptomatic individuals. PCR confirmation testing will be pending. His symptoms remain mild, his respiratory rate is normal at 16, his temperature is normal at 97.8 and his pulse oximetry is normal at 97%. The President has received his first dose of Paxlovid. He will be self-isolating at his home in Rehoboth.”

Biden has insisted that he will not abandon his campaign for a second term, despite 21 House Democrats and one Democratic senator asking that he do so over concerns about his cognitive and physical fitness.

Biden said in a BET interview taped Tuesday and released Wednesday that he would consider leaving the race , however, “if I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, you got this problem and that problem.”

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