Whoopi Goldberg has tested positive for COVID-19.
via People:
The View co-host Joy Behar revealed the news at the top of Monday’s episode, sharing that Goldberg, 66, has mild symptoms after being vaccinated and receiving the booster shot.
Behar and the rest of the panel, including Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines and guest host Ana Navarro, were filming the talk show remotely from their own homes, a set-up that Behar said she hoped would be only temporary.
“They say there’s no place like home for the holidays and that’s exactly where we are this year,” she said. “Happy New Year from all of our living rooms. As you can see we’re back in boxes and doing the show remotely — hopefully for just a week, I’m praying that it’s just a week but you never know because this omicron thing is all over the place.”
Behar, 79, continued, “Why am I here instead of Whoopi? Well, Whoopi, unfortunately, tested positive over the break but she’ll be back probably next week. Since she’s vaxxed and boosted, her symptoms have been very, very, mild. But we’re being super cautious here at The View.”
Hostin, 53, then revealed that she and her mom also tested positive for COVID over the holiday break but have since recovered. Isolating for Christmas was particularly hard for her family, Hostin said, as her husband Manny’s parents both died of COVID-19 within three days of each other on Dec. 28, 2020, and Jan. 1, 2021.
“I FaceTimed with my family for Christmas and New Year’s and it was extremely difficult,” she said. “My mom also tested positive for COVID. We’re all negative now and thank god Manny and the kids and my dad were negative and remain negative.”
“I’m so thankful that I was vaccinated and boosted because I only had cold like symptoms, but I didn’t feel great honestly and it just goes to show you that the vaccine and the boosters do work and it makes sure that you’re not hospitalized for something like this and it makes sure that you don’t die from something like this,” Hostin continued.
“It was a pretty difficult holiday season for the Hostin household,” the TV personality added. “My husband was at the cemetery on Christmas Day and I wasn’t able to go with him. And he was very, very worried about me and checking my oxygenation levels constantly. We’re on the other side of it now, but it was a very difficult, difficult time for us.”
Goldberg and Hostin’s positive diagnoses come amid the surge of COVID-19 cases currently ravaging the country, due in part to the highly contagious omicron variant. According to the New York Times COVID data tracker, the United States recorded over 585,000 new cases of the virus on Dec. 30.
However, recent research suggests that the new variant may be milder and less deadly than previous ones, especially given the availability of vaccines and booster shots.
To be quite frank, with the Omicron variant more people will likely contract COVID in the next few weeks than those who won’t. Welcome to our new normal.
.@JoyVBehar shares on #TheView that @WhoopiGoldberg tested positive for COVID-19 over the holiday break and is recovering at home: "Since she's vaxxed and boosted, her symptoms have been very, very mild."
Get well soon, Whoopi! ?? pic.twitter.com/Oo1Qakfbcn
— The View (@TheView) January 3, 2022
