Bill Gates tests positive for COVID, has mild symptoms and is isolating

Bill Gates has placed himself in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, the Microsoft co-founder announced on Twitter on Tuesday.

“I’ve tested positive for COVID,” Gates tweeted. “I’m experiencing mild symptoms and am following the experts’ advice by isolating until I’m healthy again.”

Gates also stated that he is “fortunate to be vaccinated and boosted and have access to testing and great medical care.”

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Gates’ positive test result comes less than two weeks after he told The Times of London that his money had enabled him and those closest to him to escape contracting the virus.

“I had perfect internet, large houses, a private plane with zero risk of infection,” he declared during the May 1 interview. “I was able to see my kids.”

He invested billions of dollars as co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to offer immunizations to underdeveloped countries long before the coronavirus outbreak. And, despite the fact that Gates is not a scientist or a medical, he answered a number of inquiries about the coronavirus on Twitter earlier this year.

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Better and longer-lasting vaccines, according to Gates, would be the most significant scientific achievement in helping to stop the pandemic.

“The vaccines we have prevent severe disease and death very well but they are missing two key things,” he explained earlier. “First they still allow infections (‘breakthrough’) and the duration appears to be limited. We need vaccines that prevent re-infection and have many years of duration.”

It remained unclear how Gates became infected with COVID-19.

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Gates also tweeted that the foundation was meeting for the first time in two years on Tuesday, but a foundation representative told CNET that the meeting was arranged before Gates tested positive and that he attended digitally.

“We will continue working with partners and do all we can to ensure none of us have to deal with a pandemic again,” Gates added in a tweet.