White House coronavirus response coordinator Birx plans to retire after travel backlash

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Dr. Deborah Birx gives update on COVID-19 cases, vaccine development, reopening schools, hydroxychloroquine

White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Deborah Birx joins 'Fox & Friends.'

White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said she is looking to retire, though she did not nail down a timeline.

She told news site Newsy that she is willing to first help President-elect Joe Biden’s team with its coronavirus response as needed. 

"I will be helpful in any role that people think I can be helpful in, and then I will retire," Birx told the news outlet.

Birx’s comments come days after The Associated Press reported that she traveled out of state over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend as health officials urged Americans to forego holiday travel.

"I have to say as a civil servant I will be helpful through a period of time," Birx said. 

BIRX DEFENDS HERSELF AMID POST-THANKSGIVING TRIP PUSHBACK 

"I will have to say this experience has been a bit overwhelming, it's been very difficult on my family, I think what was done in the last week to my family … these are all very difficult things." She said both her daughter and parents hadn’t left the house in 10 months.

The AP reported that Birx was accompanied by three generations of her family from two households, despite her telling others to stay in their immediate household.

Birx insisted that she did not travel to Delaware to celebrate Thanksgiving, but rather to prepare her home there for a sale and her travel companions were from her immediate household.

BIRX TRAVELED TO DELAWARE VACATION PROPERTY WITH FAMILY AFTER WARNING OF HOLIDAY GATHERINGS

"Like many Americans, I am the sole caregiver for my parents," she said in a statement to Fox News. "They live with me in my immediate household in Potomac, where my daughter and her family reside as well. We are all supporting each other and providing for each other during this difficult time."

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She added: "We did not hold the usual Thanksgiving dinner we have every year which includes 30-40 members of my extended family. In fact, I did not hold a Thanksgiving celebration whatsoever this year. My trip to Delaware after the Thanksgiving holiday solely focused on preparing the property for a potential sale. Members of my immediate household assisted in that as well."

Fox News' Sam Dorman contributed to this report.