Whoopi Goldberg shares update after breakthrough COVID-19 case: 'It was a shock'

Goldberg plans to return to co-host "The View" on Monday.

January 5, 2022, 12:47 PM

Whoopi Goldberg joined "The View" from home on Wednesday to give an update on her health after testing positive for COVID-19.

Goldberg said she started to feel under the weather with mild symptoms after Christmas, took a test on Thursday and received her positive test results on Friday. She rang in the new year by resting in bed, listening to audiobooks and watching the ball drop.

Goldberg is both vaccinated and boosted, she said, making her COVID-19 infection a breakthrough case.

"It was a shock, because I'm triple vaxxed, I haven't been anywhere, I haven't done anything," Goldberg said Wednesday. "It's one of those things where you think, I've done everything I was supposed to do... Yeah, it doesn't stop omicron."

"I don't know how much more proof people need to see that the vaccination -- while it does not necessarily stop it from happening again -- it is not happening at the same rate that it was," Goldberg said.

"I don't know anybody that doesn't know somebody who's got it or has just gotten over it. That is not a good sign," she added.

Co-Host Joy Behar -- who stepped up to moderate the show during Goldberg's absence -- expressed her concern for the EGOT considering Goldberg's battle with septic pneumonia in 2019.

"We were particularly concerned about you, because you had a serious pneumonia bout," Behar said. "Were you worried about that or no?"

Goldberg said that factor didn't concern her, because "you can only do what you can do, and whatever your body decides it's going to do is what you have to roll with."

"It could have been much, much worse, I'm sure, and it wasn't," she continued. "I'm really lucky."

On "The View"'s first show of the year Monday, Behar, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines and Ana Navarro co-hosted the show remotely without Goldberg. Behar revealed that Goldberg contracted COVID-19 over the show's two-week hiatus.

"Why am I here instead of Whoopi? Well, Whoopi unfortunately tested positive over the break, but she'll be back probably next week," Behar said. "Since she's vaxxed and boosted, her symptoms have been very, very mild, but we're being super cautious here at 'The View.'"

Goldberg plans to return to co-host "The View" remotely on Monday, Jan. 10.

The View’s original podcast series "Behind the Table" is available for free on major listening platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, TuneIn, Audacy and the ABC News app.