First lady Jill Biden left isolation on Sunday, after testing negative for COVID twice and was able to join her husband, President Joe Biden, in Delaware. Biden tested positive a week ago while on vacation in South Carolina. “After isolating for five days and receiving negative results from two consecutive Covid-19 tests, the first lady will depart South Carolina later today for Delaware,” read a statement from the first lady’s communications director.
The news comes as U.S. known cases of COVID are continuing to ease, although the true tally is likely higher than publicly reported given how many people are testing at home, with their data typically not being collected.
The daily average for new cases stood at 95,156 on Sunday, according to a New York Times tracker, down 19% from two weeks ago and at the lowest level seen since mid-May. Cases are rising in Michigan, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi and Maine and are flat in Missouri. They are falling in all other states. The daily average for hospitalizations was down 7% at 40,375, while the daily average for deaths is down 7% to 460. See also: Polio and monkeypox demonstrate a ‘heightened focus’ on viruses In medical news, the Food and Drug Administration authorized Novavax Inc.’s
NVAX,
-2.69%
COVID vaccine for use in teenagers late Friday. Novavax’s recombinant protein-based vaccine uses different technology than the mRNA shots developed by Moderna Inc.
MRNA,
-2.58%
and Pfizer Inc.
PFE,
-0.63%
and BioNTech SE
BNTX,
+0.66%,
and received an emergency-use authorization by the FDA for adults in July. The vaccine still requires a policy recommendation for use by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which followed the FDA by about a week when authorizing the Novavax shot for adults. Moderna said Monday that it will supply the Canadian government with a total of 12 million doses of its bivalent COVID vaccine, which targets the original strain of the virus and the omicron variant. Elsewhere, it was learned early Monday that Anthony Fauci now plans to step down in December from both his dir …