CNN host reveals ‘symptomatic Covid’ and urges testing before gatherings

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

CNN host Brianna Keilar has urged her viewers to get tested before seeing friends and family after she tested positive for Covid and was symptomatic.

Ms Keilar announced news of her positive test result early on Friday, meaning she will not appear on CNN until she ends isolation, which is typically 10 days.

“I have symptomatic covid and am so thankful to have the protection of being double vaccinated and boosted,” she tweeted, before appealing to Americans to test.

“Please be careful about potential exposures,” the CNN host wrote. “Get tested before gathering with friends and family.”

Many of her CNN colleagues tweeted back by wishing her a speedy recovery, with many calling on Americans to get a Covid booster before Christmas.

Fellow CNN commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin wrote, “Get soon better, Brianna!! And yes, #GetBoosted!”, while Jason Caroll, CNN’s national correspondent, added: “Hang in there Brianna!!!”.

Others shared experiences of being double vaccinated and “boosted” but testing positive for Covid, as a new – and more infectious – Covid variant circulates, known as Omicron.

The variant has been reported in 36 US states, and it is thought to be more infectious than the Delta variant that is currently dominant in the US.

Omicron accounts for as much as 13 per cent of all infections in New York and New Jersey, according to NBC News, and in the UK, where Omicron has already taken hold, cases have been doubling almost every 2.5 days.

Biden administration figures, including Dr Anthony Fauci, have this week called for Americans to get Covid boosters and for the unvaccinated to get a dose before seeing family and friends at Christmas – in a bid at reducing the risk.

Dr Fauci told NBC News, “Our booster vaccine regimens work against Omicron” and “at this point, there is no need for a variant-specific booster”, in comments not dissimilar to the CNN host’s.

Figures from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention statistics show that the seven day average for Covid infections has risen from roughly 80,000 a day to 120,000 a day since 1 December.

The US’ death toll meanwhile surpassed 800,000 this week.