BETHESDA, Md. (AP) President Joe Biden briefly transferred power to Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday to undergo a routine colonoscopy at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center before resuming his duties, the White House said.

Biden drove early Friday to the medical center in the Washington suburbs for his first routine physical exam as president. Press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden would be under anesthesia during the colonoscopy and temporarily transferred power to Harris. Psaki said Biden resumed his duties after speaking with Harris and White House chief of staff Ron Klain at approximately 11:35 a.m.

Harris, the first woman, person of color and person of South Asian descent to be vice president , made history during the short time she served as acting president. She was scheduled to travel to Ohio later Friday, after Biden resumed his duties.

As was the case when President George W. Bush had the same procedure in 2002 and 2007, and following the process set out in the Constitution, President Biden will transfer power to the Vice President for the brief period of time when he is under anesthesia, Psaki said before Bidens colonoscopy. The Vice President will work from her office in the West Wing during this time.

Biden, 78, had his last full exam in December 2019, when doctors found the former vice president to be healthy, vigorous and fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, according to a doctors report at the time. Biden, who turns 79 on Saturday, is the oldest person to serve as president , and interest in his health has been high since he declared his candidacy for the White House in 2019.

Dr. Kevin OConnor, who has been Bidens primary care physician since 2009, wrote in a three-page note that the then-presidential candidate was in overall good shape.

In that report, OConnor said that since 2003, Biden has had episodes of atrial fibrillation, a type of irregular heartbeat thats potentially serious but treatable. At the time, OConnor cited a list of tests that showed Bidens heart was functioning normally and his only needed care was a blood thinner to prevent the most worrisome risk, blood clots or stroke.

Biden had a brush with death in 1988, requiring surgery to repair two brain aneurysms, weak bulges in arteries, one of them leaking. Biden has never had a recurrence, his doctor said, citing a test in 2014 that examined his arteries.