Former US president Obama tests positive for Covid-19; urges fellow Americans to get vaccinated

Washington, March 14 (PTI): Former US President Barack Obama has said that he tested positive for Covid-19 and urged fellow Americans to get vaccinated though the deadly disease is on the wane in the country.

“I just tested positive for Covid,” Obama, 60, tweeted on Sunday.

“I’ve had a scratchy throat for a couple of days, but am feeling fine otherwise,” he said on his official Twitter account.

Obama also said that his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, has tested negative.

“Michelle and I are grateful to be vaccinated and boosted,” the former President said in a Facebook post.

“It’s a good reminder that, even as cases go down, you should get vaccinated and boosted if you haven’t already to help prevent more serious symptoms and giving Covid to others.”

Certain demographics in the US, such as African Americans and Republicans, are more hesitant about the Covid vaccine than others.

Obama had recently returned to Washington, DC, after spending much of the winter in Hawaii. He tested positive in DC, a person close to him said, CNN reported.

The diagnosis makes Obama the second US President known to contract the virus after then-President Donald Trump announced he tested positive in October 2020, which was before vaccines were widely available in the US.

Obama has been a champion of public health measures throughout the pandemic. Last August, he dramatically scaled back his 60th birthday party on Martha’s Vineyard due to concerns at the time over the Delta variant.

Currently, only 2% of the US population live in a county with a “high” Covid-19 community level, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The rest are at “low” or “medium” community levels, areas where there’s no recommendation for masking or where immunocompromised people and those at high risk for severe disease are advised to take extra precautions against Covid-19, respectively.

Total 79,517,492 coronavirus cases have been reported in the US and 967,552 people have died, according to statistics provided by Johns Hopkins University.