California Gov. Gavin Newsom tests positive for COVID-19

“Grateful to be vaccinated & for treatments like Paxlovid,” Newsom said on Twitter. “I’m following health guidelines and will be isolating while I work remotely.”

Newsom was prescribed Paxlovid, COVID-19 antiviral pills that reduce severe disease and death by 90%. He will start his 5-day Paxlovid regimen “immediately,” officials said.

On Friday, Newsom and Ardern met in San Francisco to discuss climate change. The governor’s office shared photographs and video of the meeting on Twitter, saying that a partnership with New Zealand “will strengthen ties between our two governments to deploy critical solutions that are essential to addressing this existential crisis.”

Erin Mellon, a spokesperson for Newsom, said that New Zealand officials have been notified of Newsom’s status and said that it was immediately unknown how he got infected. No one else in his family has tested positive, officials said.

Newsom is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus and received his second booster shot last week on May 18, governor’s officials announced at the time. Public health officials have said that getting vaccinated is the best way to protect oneself from getting seriously ill or dying from COVID-19.

The governor has been vocal about the importance of being vaccinated against the coronavirus, which has killed more than 90,000 people in California and more than 1 million people across the United States, according to data reviewed by The Chronicle.

Newsom will be tested before he leaves isolation, governors officials said, pointing to guidance in California’s SMARTER Plan.

He has had to quarantine in the past because of exposure to one of his staff members who tested positive for the coronavirus in December, as well as a separate quarantine in November after three of Newsom’s four children were exposed to a California Highway Patrol officer who later tested positive for the coronavirus.

Two of Newsom’s children tested positive for the coronavirus in September, with officials saying at the time that the family was “following all COVID protocols.”

Chronicle staff writer Dustin Gardiner contributed to this report.