(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 czar is departing the White House, the latest sign of the pandemic’s waning grip on the country and on the administration.
Ashish Jha, the second official to lead the president’s coronavirus response, will depart the post shortly. He will return to the Brown University School of Public Health to retake his post as dean on July 1.
Biden issued a statement Thursday thanking him for his tenure.
“We now have the tools to manage Covid-19 and the virus no longer controls our daily lives,” Biden said. “We are a stronger and healthier nation because of his contributions to public service.”
Jha, who also served as an adviser on other public health matters, took over as coronavirus response coordinator last year from Jeff Zients, who led Biden’s Covid approach from the first days of his presidency.
Zients now serves as Biden’s chief of staff.
(Updates to add details in second paragraph on Jha’s plans)
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