White House COVID-19 response leader Jeff Zients leaving post to return to private life

March 17 (UPI) -- The White House announced on Thursday that President Joe Biden's chief COVID-19 response coordinator is leaving the role and will be replaced by an Ivy League health administrator who's also a distinguished physician of internal medicine.

Since Biden took office more than a year ago, Jeffrey Zients has directed the White House COVID-19 Response Team and been the primary point person leading the federal efforts to fight the pandemic.

Zients, a business executive who also serves as a senior adviser to Biden, was previously the White House budget director and head of the National Economic Council under former President Barack Obama.

Zients, 55, will leave the post in April and return to the private sector, the White House said.

"I called on Jeff Zients to lead my administration's COVID-19 response because there is no one better at delivering results," Biden said in a statement Thursday.

Jeff Zients, then director of the White House budget office, listens as President Barack Obama speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, D.C., on April 10, 2013. File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI

"Jeff put his decades of management experience to work formulating and executing on a plan to build the infrastructure we needed to deliver vaccines, tests, treatment, and masks to hundreds of millions of Americans."

Biden said that Zients will be succeeded in the top COVID-19 post by Dr. Ashish Jha, an internist and dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. Jha is a health policy researcher and has experience in pandemic preparedness and response.

"Dr. Jha is one of the leading public health experts in America, and a well known figure to many Americans from his wise and calming public presence," Biden said. "And as we enter a new moment in the pandemic ... Dr. Jha is the perfect person for the job."

Zients undertook a substantial overhaul of the White House's COVID-19 response efforts after Biden replaced Donald Trump in the White House in January 2021 and prioritized vaccinating Americans against the virus.

According to the CDC, almost 217 million Americans have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 so far, about 65% of the total population -- and 255 million (77%) have received at least one dose. More than 96 million Americans have also received a booster dose, according to CDC figures.

Earlier this week, second gentleman Doug Emhoff tested positive for COVID-19 and it was announced on Wednesday that visiting Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin, who was supposed to meet with Biden at the White House on Thursday, has also tested positive for the virus.