The president has spent the past few days meeting with world leaders and traveling with lawmakers.
After a week spent traveling across the Middle East and meeting with world leaders, President Joe Biden tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday.
The president’s schedule in the days leading to his diagnosis was not short of meetings and events, and he didn’t hold back from using direct contact in his greetings — doling out handshakes and fist bumps to his counterparts across the region.
Biden, who is fully vaccinated and double boosted, is experiencing “very mild symptoms,” such as a runny nose and fatigue, that began Wednesday evening, according to the White House. First lady Jill Biden tested negative for the virus Thursday morning, as did Vice President Kamala Harris.
But Biden interacted with many other leaders in the week leading up to his positive test result, raising the question of who would be considered a close contact to the president. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines a close contact as someone who was less than 6 feet away from a person with known or suspected Covid starting two days before the infected person developed symptoms. A person would also be a close contact if they were “in the presence of someone with confirmed or suspected Covid-19 for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period.”
POLITICO has mapped out the seven days leading to the president’s positive test, what he was doing and who he came in contact with. Here’s the rundown:
Thursday, July 14BIDEN TOURS JERUSALEM, MEETS WITH HERZOG AND NETANYAHU
President Joe Biden talks with American Holocaust survivors Dr. Gita Cycowicz and Rena Quint in the Hall of Remembrance at Yad Vashem, Wednesday, July 13, 2022, in Jerusalem. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo
One week before his positive test result, Biden was in Jerusalem. He’d landed in the city the day before to kick off his four-day trip to the Middle East, where he would meet with key leaders in an attempt to reassert U.S. leadership in the region.
The president met with dozens of people in Israel on July 14. At the top of the day he participated in a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid — whom he had greeted with a fist bump at the airport. Biden then joined the leaders of Israel, India and the United Arib Emirates for a meeting of the I2U2 Group and had meetings with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Later Thursday, Biden attended a reception where Lapid awarded him the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor for his longtime support of the country. He then met with U.S. athletes competing in the Maccabiah Games, an international Jewish and Israeli multisport event, before watching the opening ceremonies.