©  The Associated Press

White House officials have used President Biden’s positive test for COVID-19 to stress the importance of getting vaccinated against the virus as a new variant spread across the country.

“Because the president is fully vaccinated, double boosted, his risk of serious illness is dramatically lower,” Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House’s coronavirus coordinator, told reporters at a press briefing. 

“We have worked very hard over the last 18 months to make sure we have plenty of vaccines, plenty of therapies, that people can get tested on a regular basis… and we all know from medicine that early treatment is always better,” Jha added.

Biden, 79, tested positive for the virus earlier Thursday as part of routine testing, the White House said. He has mild symptoms, but officials have said he is still working from the residence and doing well.

When asked about the president’s risk of serious illness and his condition, Jha repeatedly returned to the importance of Biden having gotten two vaccine shots, plus two booster shots to guard against the virus.

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Welcome to The Hill's Evening Report, catching you up on news from the afternoon and looking at the big stories likely to impact tomorrow.

A Democratic super PAC will air an ad during Thursday’s prime-time hearing of the House Jan. 6 select committee that targets four GOP candidates for statewide office who have downplayed the Capitol riot or disputed the 2020 election results.

A government watchdog has asked the Secret Service to stop its internal investigation into what it deemed were “erased” text messages.

Former President Trump’s actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot constituted a “dereliction of duty” that endangered American democracy, a group of seven retired four-star generals and admirals wrote in a New York Times op-ed.

The Pacific Northwest is facing a particularly grim outlook when it comes to brutal summer heat, federal weather experts said on Thursday. 

The House has passed a bill to try to ensure access to contraceptives, less than a month after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said the bench should overturn the landmark case protecting forms of birth control.

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A new study has found that about half of all Americans expect a civil war to occur “in the next few years.” 

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, has asked the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to address the “barriers” to monkeypox treatment that people have reported dealing with so far.

A new mural unveiled Wednesday in Washington, D.C., features the faces of WNBA star Brittney Griner and 17 other Americans detained abroad.

"[W]hile the bottom-line numbers of how many people suffer from long COVID, and for how long, aren’t precisely pinned down yet, these recent studies leave no doubt that the phenomena poses a serious public health problem," writes health policy analyst Steven Findlay. 

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