Barbara Walters beats chicken pox, returns to 'The View'

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NEW YORK, March 4 (UPI) -- Barbara Walters returned to her chat show "The View" in New York Monday after recovering for weeks from a concussion and the chicken pox.

At the beginning of show, Joy Behar held Walters' arm to help her on to the raised platform where they sit with co-hosts Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd, Walters was greeted by a standing ovation from the audience. Show moderator Whoopi Goldberg had the day off.

"They're treating me like: 'Be careful. Don't walk too fast.' I am fine. How did you expect me to look? Everybody's been saying, 'You look good.' What did they expect?" Walters said when she appeared on the program Monday morning.

"I have not been on the air -- maybe you noticed -- for six weeks," she said. "So, today after a lot of scratching and rest, I am fine and healthy. It all began in January when I was visiting a friend in Miami and she had as another guest a well-known actor, who shall be nameless, and I gave him a New Year's hug and kiss on the cheek. The next day, he left and what he didn't know then and what I didn't know at all was he was about to develop a bad case of shingles. Now, if you have never had chicken pox you can get it from someone with shingles. I didn't know that. Most people have chicken pox as kids. Except me."

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg then appeared on stage and presented Walters with a bouquet of roses to welcome her back to work.

"I can't let you come back without flowers. I do this for everyone who gets sick in the city of New York," Bloomberg quipped.

The 83-year-old ABC News veteran has been absent from "The View" since Jan. 22 when she was first briefly hospitalized after a fall in Washington where she was attending a party ahead of President Barack Obama's second inauguration.

Walters has said she fainted and hit her head while at the British ambassador's residence, cutting her temple. She was taken to the hospital where she received six stitches. The following week, "The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg announced on the show Walters had been diagnosed with the chicken pox.

During her first day back to work, Walters lifted her hair up to show she had one chicken pock left on her face, as well as a scar on her forehead from where she received stitches after the fall.