WATCH: The View declares Covid is 'back' after Whoopi Goldberg tests positive

Whoopi Goldberg was notably absent from Tuesday's episode of The View, with her co-hosts revealing that she had tested positive for Covid-19. 

The news prompted Joy Behar to declare that the virus was "back."



"As you can see, Whoopi is not here," Behar began. "She has Covid."

"Yes! It's back!" she added as the audience vocalized their concern.

Behar assured those in attendance that Goldberg was "on the mend," and would likely return to the show later in the week.

Over the past few days, the virus believed to have been a thing of the past has surged back into the public discourse, with many of the same debates picking up from where they left off months ago.

On Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci said he was "concerned" that Americans wouldn't follow new masking recommendations if the CDC was to begin pushing pandemic-era guidance.
 

"I would hope that if in fact we get to the point where the volume of cases is such that organizations like the CDC ... recommends that people wear masks, I would hope that they abide by the recommendation and take into account the risk to themselves and to their families," he said, reiterating that he was "not talking forcing anybody to do anything."

During the same interview, Dr. Fauci admitted that while masks could help at an individual level, the evidence that they impact a pandemic as a whole was "less strong."

The Biden administration recently revealed that a new set of Covid-19 vaccines would be available to the population, leading many, including Donald Trump to call on manufacturers to release data related to the safety of their products.

"They have to be honest with the numbers," the former president said. "They have an obligation to be honest and if they are going to hold back, that means they're holding back something that's not good. So it's good for them to be honest and people are going to understand that they have to be honest and any information they have to release it."