Former President Bill Clinton announced Wednesday that he has tested positive for Covid-19 and is experiencing mild symptoms.“I’m grateful to be vaccinated and boosted, which has kept my case mild, and I urge everyone to do the same, especially as we move into the winter months,” Clinton said in a tweet.
The former president, 76, added that he is “doing fine overall and keeping myself busy at home.” Clinton was hospitalized last year for a urinary tract infection that spread to his bloodstream. He also had quadruple bypass heart surgery in 2004 and had two stents inserted to open one artery in 2010. The 42nd President is the latest of the Presidents’ Club to test positive for the virus. President Joe Biden contracted Covid-19 this summer, and then-President Donald Trump tested positive in October 2020. Former President Barack Obama also experienced a mild case earlier this year.
Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths have remained flat in the US in recent weeks, though the virus’ impact is not gone: on average, more than 300 Americans die and 3,400 people are hospitalized each day with Covid-19, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Just 12% of eligible people in the US have gotten their updated Covid-19 booster, according to the CDC, and about 1 in 5 people nationwide remain completely unvaccinated.