The White House announced Joe Biden had tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday morning.
The US president is experiencing “very mild symptoms”, and is being treated with the anti-viral medication Paxlovid.
The 79-year-old joins a long list of more than two dozen world leaders who have contracted the infectious respiratory disease.
Here are other world leaders who have tested positive for Covid:
Donald Trump
The ex-president tested positive for Covid on 2 October 2020, one month before the presidential election. He was taken to Walter Reed Hospital aboard Marine One and experienced symptoms including extreme fatigue and difficulty breathing. White House physician Sean Conley placed him on a Regeneron polyclonal antibody cocktail and other drugs. After spending three days in hospital, Mr Trump, 76, returned to the White House for a choreographed photo op of him removing his mask on the Truman Balcony. Mr Trump quietly received his first vaccination in January 2021.
Boris Johnson
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson wound up in intensive care in hospital after contracting Covid in April 2020. The 58-year-old’s condition deteriorated to the point where he was placed on oxygen, and officials were reportedly making contingency plans in the event that he did not pull through. He later credited the NHS public health system with having saved his life. Weeks earlier, the British leader had boasted of shaking hands with everybody at a hospital where coronavirus patients were being treated.
Justin Trudeau
Canadian Prime Minister has contracted Covid twice already in 2022. Mr Trudeau, 50, announced he had tested positive on 13 June, days after holding bilateral talks with Joe Biden in Los Angeles. In January, he tested positive along with two of his children. He experienced mild symptoms on both occasions.
Jair Bolsonaro
The far-right Brazilian leader repeatedly downplayed the dangers of Covid, dismissively referring to it as “the little flu”, before testing positive in July 2020. The 67-year-old suffered mild symptoms. In 2021, Brazilian lawmakers sought to hold him criminally responsible for the panedemic response.
Jacinda Ardern
The New Zealand prime minister contracted Covid in May, along with her fiancé Clarke Gayford and 4-year-old daughter Neve. Ms Ardern, 41, was fully vaccinated and said she avoided severe symptoms. The diagnosis did not stop her from visiting the United States where she met with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and delivered the Harvard University commencement speech.
Emmanuel Macron
Days after attending a European Union leadership summit in December 2020, the French president developed coronavirus disease symptoms — sending many of Europe’s leaders into quarantine. Mr Macron, 44, said he had a fever and experienced fatigue and coughing.
Pakistan president Arif Alvi, Polish president Andrzej Duda, Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the prime minister of Russia Mikhail Mishustin have also tested positive for Covid.
