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After a year and a half at the podium, White House press secretary Jen Psaki is planning to leave the White House on May 13, and her current deputy, Karine Jean-Pierre, will be her replacement, President Joe Biden announced Thursday.

In a historic pick, Jean-Pierre will be the first Black, and first openly gay person to hold the position of White House press secretary.

“Karine not only brings the experience, talent and integrity needed for this difficult job, but she will continue to lead the way in communicating about the work of the Biden-Harris Administration on behalf of the American people. Jill and I have known and respected Karine a long time and she will be a strong voice speaking for me and this Administration,” Biden said in a statement.

Beaming with pride and telling reporters she might cry, Psaki called her replacement up to the podium at the top of Thursday’s briefing to formally introduce Jean-Pierre, whom she called a friend and “partner in truth.”

“She will give a voice to so many,” Psaki said, noting her place in history, “and show so many what is truly possible when you work hard and dream big.”

But Psaki said she also wanted to make clear Jean-Pierre’s qualifications to the American people, detailing how she got her start in New York City politics before serving on several campaigns, in the Obama–Biden administration and as a longtime adviser to Biden and the first lady.

“I will have a lot to say about how grateful I am for the trust the president and the first lady and the whole team have given me and entrusted me in the last 15 months — but this day is about Karine and I want to celebrate her,” Psaki said.

Standing shoulder-to-shoulder and clasping hands, Psaki said she and Jean-Pierre agreed when they started working at the White House to build a “drama-free” workplace focused on “rebuilding trust with the public.”

“And I am just so grateful to have had Karine by my side for this, over the last 15 months and I just can’t wait to see her shine at the podium. So congratulations, and I can’t wait to see you bring your own style and brilliance to this job,” Psaki said.

Almost one year ago to the day, Jean-Pierre anchored her first White House briefing, where ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Mary Bruce asked her about making history at the podium.

“It’s a real honor to be standing here today,” Jean-Pierre said. “I appreciate the historic nature, I really do, but I believe that being behind this podium, being in this room, being in this building, is not about one person. It’s about what we do on behalf of the American people.”

The first Black woman to address journalists in the press briefing room was Judy Smith, a deputy press secretary for President George H.W. Bush, but she was not carrying the press office’s top title when she took the podium in 1991 — as Jean-Pierre soon will.

“Clearly the president believes that representation matters, and I appreciate him giving me this opportunity, and it’s another reason why I think we are all so proud that this is the most diverse administration in history,” she added last year.

Psaki has long said she would leave the White House press office sometime this year, and Biden thanked her for “raising the bar” during in her tenure.

“Jen Psaki has set the standard for returning decency, respect and decorum to the White House Briefing Room. I want to say thank you to Jen for raising the bar, communicating directly and truthfully to the American people, and keeping her sense of humor while doing so. I thank Jen her service to the country, and wish her the very best as she moves forward,” Biden said in Thursday’s statement.

Psaki didn’t comment on her plans, but if Psaki lands at NBC News next, as Axios has reported, it would follow a similar path to former Biden-Harris administration adviser Symone Sanders, who left last year to start a show on MSNBC.

ABC News’ Molly Nagle contributed to this report.

The Senate will take a procedural vote to start debate on codifying abortion rights next week, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Thursday.

Democrats have pledged to take swift action on the issue after a leaked draft opinion showed the Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision legalizing abortion in the U.S. The draft is not the final ruling, though the court confirmed its authenticity.

“I intend to file cloture on this vital legislation on Monday which will set up a vote for Wednesday,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor.

Any effort to protect abortion access nationwide is likely to face an uphill battle in the 50-50 divided chamber, where Democrats don’t have the 60 votes needed to overcome an expected filibuster.

The party has already experienced this problem with the Women’s Health and Protection Act. The bill cleared the House of Representatives in September 2021, but in the Senate Schumer failed to get even the entire Democratic caucus on board when he tried to start debate on the bill back in February.

The legislation would codify Roe while also banning requirements some states have put into place related to abortion care, such as waiting periods and mandatory doctor’s visits before the procedure.

Republicans have taken issue with how broad the Women’s Health and Protection Act is, prompting Democrats to draft a modified version. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., changed some of the bill’s language but it still may not be enough to sway the GOP members.

GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine told ABC News’ Trish Turner that she would vote “no” on the proposal.

“My goal is to codify what is essentially existing law,” Collins said. “That means Roe v. Wade, it means Casey v. Planned Parenthood, which established the undue burden test, and it means keeping the “conscience” protections which appear to be wiped out by the Democrats’ version. So, I’m not trying to go beyond current law or, but rather to codify those Supreme Court decisions.”

Collins is one of the Democratic Party’s best chances of gaining a Republican vote on any potential bill. She and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are the sole Senate Republicans who support abortion rights.

Collins and Murkowski have their own proposal to codify Roe. Their bill — dubbed the Reproductive Choice Act — would prohibit states from imposing an “undue burden” on the ability of a woman to choose to terminate a pregnancy pre-viability but also allows states to keep other restrictions in place.

Senate Democrats held a news conference on Thursday afternoon to discuss next week’s vote.

“This is a life or death moment and we need to fight,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., told reporters.

Schumer said next week’s vote is intended to put on the record exactly where lawmakers stand on abortion rights.

“You will hear plenty from us,” Schumer said. “This is not just one vote and then this issue goes away. You will hear a lot from us through the next month all the way through November.”

An alleged Colombian drug lord believed to control the “largest and most powerful cocaine trafficking and paramilitary organization in Colombia” arrived in New York Thursday to face multiple criminal charges, according to federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.

Dairo Usuga, who is also known as Otoniel, was flown from Colombia to John F. Kennedy Airport overnight and will make his initial appearance later Thursday in Brooklyn federal court where he has been accused of overseeing the production, purchase and transfer of multiton cocaine shipments from Colombia and Mexico into the United States over many years, according to court records.

Usuga was arrested in Colombia in October 2021 at the request of the United States.

“Prior to his capture by the Colombian National Police, the defendant was the principal leader of a transnational criminal organization known as the Clan del Golfo (‘CDG’), the largest and most powerful cocaine trafficking and paramilitary organization in Colombia,” prosecutors said in a March court filing.

“In furtherance of its drug trafficking activities, the CDG, at the direction of the defendant, also engaged in repeated acts of violence, including murders, assaults, kidnappings, torture and assassinations against Colombian law enforcement officers, Colombian military personnel, rival drug traffickers and paramilitaries, potential witnesses and civilians,” the filing continued.

Usuga is charged with supervising and managing a continuing criminal enterprise, international cocaine distribution conspiracy and use of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking.

CDG “uses violence and intimidation to control the narcotics trafficking routes, cocaine processing laboratories, speedboat departure points, and clandestine landing strips,” according to the State Department.

During a turf war with a rival criminal organization for drug trafficking routes, homicides shot up 443% over two years, according to the federal government.

Prior to his capture, the State Department had been offering a reward of $5 million.

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When Laura Martin tested positive for COVID-19 last month during an extended stay in California, she was prescribed Paxlovid, the highly touted antiviral drug created by Pfizer.

Just one day after her diagnosis, she started her five-day course of pills, which have been shown to dramatically reduce the risk of hospitalization and death.

Martin, a 63-year-old Boston native who now resides in Canada, said she was thrilled when her symptoms began to subside.

“By the end of [the treatment], on Day 5, I was negative and feeling completely normal like without any symptoms, so I thought, ‘Wow, this is really great. What a great drug,’” Martin told ABC News.

Martin resumed her normal activities, but a week later, she began to feel ill again. When her symptoms worsened, she tested again.

“It came roaring back, and this round two has been much more severe than round one was,” Martin said. “This is like four days of much more significant symptoms than round one.”

​Martin’s case is part of a seemingly rare, but increasingly reported phenomenon of COVID-19 symptom recurrence after being treated with Paxlovid. While it is largely unknown what is causing the reported viral resurgence, scientists say they are investigating. ​​

Pfizer says that it is taking the reported incidences of recurrence “very seriously,” but that the rates mirror those who received a placebo in clinical trials. Experts urge that the benefits of the drug, in preventing hospitalization and death, outweigh the potential risk of a second positive test or symptom reemergence.

In additional analysis of the Paxlovid clinical trial data, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported that most patients “did not have symptoms at the time of a positive PCR test after testing negative, and, most importantly, there was no increased occurrence of hospitalization or death or development of drug resistance.”

Company executives also reported, this week, that the use of Paxlovid continues to expand rapidly, particularly as infection rates across the country rise again. In the U.S., use of the treatment has increased by nearly ten-fold in recent weeks.

The number of locations in the U.S. with Paxlovid supply has grown to more than 33,000 sites now available, a four-fold increase since late-February. In addition, the company reported that there are now more than 2,200 Test to Treat locations now open.

‘Game-changer’

Long heralded as a “game-changer” in the fight against COVID-19, the push to make Paxlovid available to Americans has ramped up in recent weeks, with the White House looking to increase supply of the treatment.

The drug, which was granted emergency use authorization by the FDA in December 2021 for people with mild to moderate COVID-19 at high risk of disease progression, is also strongly recommended by the World Health Organization. It has been shown to be highly effective, estimated to provide an 89% reduction in virus-related hospitalizations and deaths.

However, in recent weeks, a number of patients, who have taken the treatment, have taken to social media to disclose what they say is a perplexing phenomenon of COVID-19 symptoms reemerging after they finished the prescribed five-day treatment course.

Some individuals claimed on Twitter that after their initial symptoms dissipated, leading to a negative test, they are once again testing positive.

“We’re seeing people get better on Paxlovid,” Dr. Shira Doron, an infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center, told ABC News. “But then, when they stop at the end of five days, we’re hearing stories of symptoms coming back and even, tests becoming either more positive, i.e. a darker line, or tests that had gone negative turning positive.”

Studies have found that a dark line can “indicates a strong positive with a high level of virus and is usually seen when people are at or near peak virus load.”

Reports of these “rebound symptoms” are largely anecdotal so far but with an increasing number of questions about the puzzling viral recurrence, scientists across the country are trying to assess what may be happening in new research.

Pfizer taking reports of viral rebounds ‘very seriously’

In February, a 71-year-old man in Massachusetts who had been vaccinated and boosted recovered after being treated for COVID-19 with Paxlovid, Dr. Michael Charness, chief of staff at the VA Boston Healthcare System, who has been researching the phenomenon and recently put out a preprint study last week, told ABC News.

However, around nine days after his initial positive test, Charness said his patient developed cold symptoms and tested positive again for the virus.

Molecular testing soon revealed that the patient’s viral load had increased to an even higher point than when the diagnosis was first made, according to an analysis by Charness and his team.

“We were interested in whether this was a new infection or whether this was maybe an adaptation or mutation that somehow changed the variant,” Charness said, adding that gene sequencing demonstrated that this second positive test demonstrated a recurrence of the original infection in an individual who had no symptoms for a week.

“We just were very struck by that,” said Charness. “I heard from people all over the country and some from other parts of the world, who had had the same experience.”

Representatives from the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, told ABC News that teams of scientists are investigating the surprising relapse reports, and they will provide further recommendations, if appropriate.

“The phenomenon of recrudescence reiterates the importance of following CDC’s isolation guidance – anyone who develops symptoms of illness during or after isolation should remain isolated, masked, and seek out testing and clinical care,” a representative from the CDC told ABC News in a statement. “Anyone who is concerned about having been exposed or who for any other reason wants to determine their infection status should test for COVID-19.”

The FDA stressed that the reports “do not change the conclusions from the Paxlovid clinical trial which demonstrated a marked reduction in hospitalization and death.”

The viral recurrence had been observed and reported in Pfizer’s application to the FDA, last year, in which the company said several trial participants had appeared to “have a rebound” of COVID-19 around day 10 or day 14.

Pfizer executives said Tuesday that they are taking the reports “very seriously,” but they do not believe that it is related to the drug, given that the same rate of rebound was observed in people who took the placebo. Further, no connection was noted between the viral load increase and subsequent severe illness.

“We’ve taken a preliminary look at our high-risk data, and so we’ve seen for example, that we have about an incidence about 2% of that viral load rebound, but we also see the same, or close to the same, percent in the placebo arm. So it’s something that’s not particularly associated with Paxlovid itself, but may have something to do with the virus itself,” Dr. William Pao, Pfizer’s executive vice president and chief development officer said during an investors call on Tuesday. “It’s preliminary data so far, we again take it very seriously. But it’s very current, and a very low incidence, and we continue to learn as we go.”

A representative from Pfizer told ABC News that although it is too early to determine the cause, initial indications suggest an increased viral load is both uncommon and not uniquely associated with the Paxlovid treatment.

“We remain very confident in its clinical effectiveness at preventing severe outcomes from COVID-19 in high-risk patients,” the representative said.

Reports uncommon but happening ‘frequently enough’

Although official reports of these relapses still appear to be rare, such occurrences are happening “frequently enough” in those treated with Paxlovid that Charness said that it should be studied further.

“I think the first step in studying something is to know that it exists,” he explained, adding that it is particularly important for clinicians to be informed about potential rebounds, and for the public to know, so that people do not become unduly alarmed.

Thus far, researchers know very little about the reason for the recurring symptoms.

Of critical importance in the investigations is whether an individual, in the midst of such a rebound, remains infectious, Charness said.

“We are sufficiently concerned about whether people can transmit, when they’re on day 12 and 13 and 15, that we are essentially recommending that when people have a recurrence, a rebound, that they restart their isolation, and isolate until their antigen test is negative,” Charness said. “We’re seeing people whose antigen test stays positive for a week after they rebound, which means that they’re well outside the CDC’s 10-day guidance.

Should you experience a viral rebound, the FDA is now recommending that health care providers and patients refer to CDC guidance, wear a mask and isolate if they have any COVID-19 symptoms — regardless of whether or not they have been treated with an antiviral.

Charness and his team are also encouraging their patients to start their isolation period over again and stay away until their antigen test is negative.

“It’s important to exercise caution until you clear the virus the second time,” Charness said, further urging people to notify their provider.

In terms of further treatments, Charness noted it is still largely unclear what patients should do. While there are no limitations, within the authorized label, around additional usage of the drug for a subsequent COVID-19 infection, according to Pfizer, the FDA said “there is no evidence of benefit at this time for a longer course of treatment … or repeating a treatment course of Paxlovid in patients with recurrent COVID-19 symptoms following completion of a treatment course.”

Despite the reports of rebounding, health experts stress that Paxlovid is still largely achieving its original goal, to keep people out of the hospital, and severe disease at-bay.

“The bottom line is if it prevents hospitalization, if it keeps you from progressing to severe disease, hospitalization and death, the fact that you might have a recurrence of some of the symptoms and even the recurrence of a positive test is sort of secondary,” said Doron. “The main thing is Paxlovid is to prevent progression to severe disease [and] hospitalization, and it does. So, it’s still doing its job.”