Joe Biden tests COVID-19 positive, to self-isolate in Delaware beach house: White House

US President Joe Biden has been tested positive for Covid-19 while visiting Las Vegas on Wednesday. Biden is facing pressure from his own party to rethink his re-election bid. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced the positive test for the 81-year-old Democrat after Biden cancelled a speech due to the diagnosis. 

According to the White House, Biden planned to spend a long weekend at his Delaware beach house. However, it was unclear how long Covid-19 would keep him from the campaign trail.

After the announcement, the US President went to the Las Vegas airport after taping a radio interview. He met a few people at a Mexican restaurant before the interview, and was running late to deliver a speech to Latino civil rights group UnidosUS.

In another video, organiser of the event Janet Murguia was seen announcing the news of Biden's unavailability to a room full of attendees. "He said to tell my folks that we're not going to get rid of him that quickly, we're going to have a chance to hear from him in the future directly," Murguia said.

The illness comes after Biden said in an interview on Wednesday he would consider dropping out of the presidential race only if a medical condition emerged. "If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, 'You got this problem, that problem'," Biden told BET host Ed Gordon.

Biden has been under immense pressure from Democrats to back out from the presidential race after his unimpressive performance at a debate with former President and his rival Donald Trump. Joe Biden, however, has repeated time and again that he would not drop out of the contest. 

Adam Schiff, one of the most high-profile Democrats has urged Biden to drop out of the race and expressed concerns about whether he could defeat Trump. "While the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden's alone. I believe it is time for him to pass the torch," Schiff said in a statement