(NEW YORK) — Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar revealed Thursday that seven months ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer and is now cancer-free after a lumpectomy and one course of radiation.

“It’s something that no one wants to hear, and no one wants to experience, but it’s really renewed my faith in the people around me and in my purpose,” Klobuchar, a Democrat, told Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts, herself a breast cancer survivor, in an exclusive interview. “I feel much better now.”

In a Medium post informing the public for the first time Thursday morning, Klobuchar, 61, described receiving her Stage 1A breast cancer diagnosis.

“In February of this year, doctors at Mayo Clinic found small white spots called calcifications during a routine mammogram. After this was discovered, I had a biopsy at Piper Breast Center in Minneapolis, and then learned that I had Stage 1A breast cancer,” Klobuchar wrote. “Of course, this has been scary at times, since cancer is the word all of us fear, but at this point my doctors believe that my chances of developing cancer again are no greater than the average person.”

According to the nonprofit Breastcancer.org, early stage means the tumor measures “up to 2 centimeters and the cancer has not spread outside the breast; no lymph nodes are involved.”

Klobuchar, who was treated at the Mayo Clinic, recounted the poignant memories of her harrowing experience — her husband taking her to her radiation treatment, her daughter’s phone calls, nurses giving her a red, white and blue mask, and “the perfect stranger” who would help her at the airport with her suitcase, unaware of her condition as she shuttled between Washington and Minneapolis.

“There’s just a lot of people who helped me get through this. I learned every day is a gift,” Klobuchar told Roberts.

Klobuchar said her primary message for Americans is not to ignore routine medical exams especially during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Right now, thousands of women have undetected breast cancer. One in three Americans have put off going to any kind of routine examination or procedure [during the pandemic],” said Klobuchar. “So, the doctors over and over are telling me that they’re seeing people with much bigger problems than if they’d gone in early. So, that’s my first practical advice. Get those screenings. Go in, get a mammogram. Get whatever health checkup that you should normally be getting … and the second is, just be grateful for the people around you.”

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people being diagnosed with breast cancer has declined by half, suggesting fewer people are visiting their health care providers, according to research released last year.

Women age 45 to 54 should get mammograms every year, according to the American Cancer Society.

Despite the serious illness and treatment, Klobuchar kept up a grueling schedule in the Senate. As chair of the Senate Rules Committee, Klobuchar was responsible for intensive hearings analyzing the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol and its cascading security failures. She then shepherded her caucus’ effort to pass sweeping election security legislation that was eventually blocked by Republicans.

Through all of it, she quietly took inspiration from those around her, never revealing her own challenge.

“Some of my colleagues who had cancer before gave me inspiration, even though they didn’t know I had [cancer] at that time,” the senator told Roberts.

Klobuchar said she underwent radiation just two days after her father, Jim Klobuchar, a renowned sportswriter and journalist, died from Alzheimer’s.

Klobuchar’s diagnosis came not long after her husband suffered a serious medical emergency. A little more than a year ago, as Congress was toiling on a major COVID-19 economic rescue package, Klobuchar’s husband contracted COVID-19 and was seriously ill for a time.

Klobuchar had to live apart from her husband and continue work at the Capitol through the long hours of debate and final passage.

Klobuchar was first elected to the Senate in 2006 on a blue wave that saw Democrats take control of Congress. Before that, she was a prosecutor in her home state’s largest county.

In 2020, she mounted an ill-fated run for the presidency, later becoming a key surrogate for then-Vice President Joe Biden.

When asked by Roberts what she would say to people who are going through their own personal challenges right now, Klobuchar replied, “Reach out to those that you love, and people will surprise you.”

“I would say, ‘Know that people have your back.’ As much as is going on right now in our country, there are still people who want to help you,” she said. “Continue to follow your dreams and purpose, but know that people have your back.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is set to speak to the nation Thursday at 5 p.m. to lay out what the White House said is a new six-part strategy to combat the delta variant, but it was unclear whether he would call for more vaccination mandates in the private sector and for the nation’s schools.

A source familiar with the president’s plans told ABC News that Biden will announce an executive order that will “require all federal executive branch workers to be vaccinated,” as well as a second order that will direct that that standard also be applied to employees of contractors working with the federal government.

As part of this effort, the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Indian Health Service, and the National Institutes of Health will complete implementation of their previously announced vaccination requirements that cover 2.5 million people, the source said.

This is an escalation of the president’s action in July calling for federal workers to attest to their vaccination status and submit to mitigation efforts if they are not vaccinated, such as mask usage and regular testing.

Speaking at her daily briefing Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Biden would “outline the next phase in the fight against the virus and what that looks like, including measures to work with the public and private sector.”

She said he would be “building on the steps that we’ve already announced, the steps we’ve taken over the last few months, requiring more vaccinations, boosting important testing measures and more, making it safer for kids to go to school, all at a time when the American people are listening. Again, this will be six steps that we’ll work to be implementing over the months ahead.”

According to a White House official, the president’s plan will include six areas of focus: vaccinating the unvaccinated; furthering protection for the vaccinated; keeping schools safely open; increasing testing and requiring masking; protecting the economy’s recovery; and improving care for those with COVID-19.

Psaki confirmed there will be new components as part of the president’s announcement but wouldn’t go much beyond general comments about testing access, mandates and making sure kids are protected from the highly transmissible virus as they return to school and Americans return from summer vacations.

Psaki said plans were still being finalized as Biden met with with his COVID-19 response team Wednesday afternoon.

“Will any of those new steps influence the average American’s day-to-day life? Should we expect any new mitigation recommendations, as an example?” a reporter asked.

“It depends on if you’re vaccinated or not,” Psaki replied, but gave no further details.

She highlighted efforts the administration already has taken to try and get the delta variant under control.

“We’ve been at war with the delta variant over the course of the last couple of months. And just to remind you of some of the steps that we have announced, we have announced new government mandates on DOD, our military forces, NIH, other — the VA, the Veterans Affairs — Department of Veterans Affairs, folks who are serving on the front lines on the health — on health — in health roles in that department. We’ve also incentivized additional mandates, whether it is in home — in health care facilities, nursing homes, and others,” Psaki said.

“And we’ve also lifted up and — and incentivized private sector — private sector mandates, because we’ve seen that they have been effective. We’ve also deployed over 700 surge response teams across the country and work closely, again, with the private sector to institute more requirements on vaccinations,” she continued.

“We have more work to do, and we are still at war with the virus and with the delta variant,” she added. “So, we’re going to build on that work. And he’s speaking to it now, because this issue, of course, is on front of mind, top of mind to Americans across the country. People are returning to schools. Workplaces are either reopening, some brick and mortar, or some people are just returning to work after spending some time with family or loved ones over the summer.”

But besides ordering the nation’s 2.1 million federal employees and 1.3 million active duty service members get vaccinated, Biden has limited legal authority to institute a broad vaccine mandate for most Americans.

About 75% of the adult U.S. population has received at least one vaccine dose and 64.4% of the adult U.S. population is fully vaccinated as of Wednesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On Tuesday, Psaki did seem to suggest that Biden will call on the private sector to institute more vaccine mandates. Major corporations such as Facebook, Google and Citigroup have already announced vaccination requirements.

“I will note that we’ve seen that there are a range of ways that we have increased vaccinations across the country, or vaccinations have increased, I should say. One of them is private sector companies mandating in different capacities that their employees get vaccinated. Or certain school districts mandate,” Psaki said.

Biden previewed some of what he planned to say when he spoke about the August jobs numbers, which were much lower than predicted.

“There’s no question the delta variant is why today’s jobs report isn’t stronger. I know people were looking, and I was hoping, for a higher number. But next week, I’ll lay out the next steps that are going to — we’re going to need to combat the delta variant, to address some of those fears and concerns,” Biden said Friday.

A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll showed Americans in August souring on Biden’s handling of the pandemic, with his approval rating for his handling or the response dropping 10 points from June, down to 52%

Biden’s remarks are scheduled for just 11 days before the administration is set to begin widely rolling out booster shots of Pfizer on Sept. 20, a process mired by confusion as some public health experts say the data doesn’t yet support the need for boosters.

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