“I’m feeling great”: Biden speaks publicly for 1st time since recovering from COVID | FULL

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U.S. President Joe Biden delivered in-person remarks at the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday for the first time since testing positive for COVID-19 last Thursday.

Declaring that he was "feeling great" after testing negative following a five-day isolation period, his opening remarks were met with applause. In his speech, Biden highlighted the important role that vaccines, at-home tests and treatment played in his recovery, which he emphasized were publicly available.

“COVID-19 was killing thousands of Americans a day when I got here. That isn’t the case anymore,” Biden said in his address. “You can live without fear by doing what I did — get boosted, get tested, get treated.”

Throughout his isolation, administration officials have also stressed that his symptoms are mild because he has received four vaccine doses, and that he had started taking the antiviral drug Paxlovid shortly after becoming infected.

Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has said 17 people, including members of the president’s senior staff and at least one member of Congress, were determined to have been in close contact with Biden when he might have been contagious. None has tested positive so far, Jean-Pierre added at the Monday news briefing.