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- US President Donald Trump woke up on Saturday from his first night in the hospital as a Covid-19 patient and said he was fine.
- The US president announced Friday that first lady Melania Trump also tested positive.
- Other key Republican allies continued to test positive, a month before the 2020 U.S. election.
President Donald Trump woke up on Saturday from his first night in the hospital as a Covid-19 patient and said he was fine as key Republican allies announced their own positive tests a month before the US election.
Three senators, as well as Trump’s campaign manager and other high-level advisers are among a growing list from the president’s orbit who have contracted the virus, with at least seven confirmed cases linked to an event at the Rose Garden of the United States. White House last weekend.
With Trump trailing in the polls removed from the campaign for treatment at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center on the outskirts of Washington, and possibly for many days afterward, his campaign plans were in disarray before an election. potentially complicated on November 3.
Among the unknowns were the prospects for two remaining presidential debates and whether the president will have to temporarily cede power to Vice President Mike Pence if his condition worsens.
“It’s going well, I think! Thank you all. Love !!!” Trump said in his first tweet from the hospital late Friday.
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He had left the White House on his own, and was wearing a mask, which is rare for the world’s most prominent pandemic skeptic, to be rushed to the hospital.
In an 18-second video shot inside the White House and posted on Twitter, Trump broke his silence and said he was being hospitalized, but “I think I’m doing very well.”
“We’re going to make sure things work out,” he said, adding that first lady Melania Trump, who also contracted the virus, was “very well.”
But much is still unknown about his exact symptoms, described by the White House as mild, and how he contracted the virus.
Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump was receiving the antiviral drug remdesivir after consulting with specialists and did not need supplemental oxygen.
She said medical experts recommended that she work from the presidential offices at Walter Reed for the next several days as a precaution.
The New York Times reported on Saturday that Trump is experiencing a cough, congestion and fever and that these symptoms worsened during Friday.
The president uncharacteristically stayed away from Twitter for most of the day on Friday.
Biden on his own
To intensify the sense of crisis in the heart of power in the United States, a third Republican senator, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, announced Saturday that he had tested positive.
Former senior White House aide Kellyanne Conway and Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien, 42, also tested positive. So have two other Republican senators: Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Mike Lee of Utah.
The latter two are on the House Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to hold hearings for Amy Coney Barrett, Trump’s conservative candidate for a vacant seat on the Supreme Court.
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Public health experts have expressed alarm at the number of cases that appear linked to a celebration of Barrett’s nomination at the Rose Garden on Sept. 26.
At least seven people who attended have now tested positive, including Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Conway, Tillis, Lee and the president of the University of Notre Dame, John Jenkins.
These are uncharted waters for the US election with Trump, who is far behind his Democratic opponent Joe Biden in the polls, having to freeze much of his campaign.
Biden is now alone in the campaign, and he can argue that his more cautious approach to Covid-19 has been vindicated.
Biden has made Trump’s frequent downplaying of the pandemic and mixed messages about wearing masks a central theme of the campaign, while Trump has tried to shift the narrative to areas where he feels stronger, such as economy.
The former vice president, who was on stage with Trump for 90 minutes during his first grumpy debate Tuesday, announced that he and his wife Jill tested negative on Friday.
Underscoring his sudden edge in the bitter race, Biden, 77, traveled to Grand Rapids, Michigan on Friday, following up with a previously scheduled campaign stoppage.
Praying for trump
Biden said he was praying for Trump and his family, and his campaign announced that it would remove all negative ads.
However, Biden also reminded voters that he has consistently pushed for a serious approach to the coronavirus, which has killed more than 208,000 Americans, unlike his opponent, who has mocked the Democrat for his rigorous use of masks.
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“Be patriots,” Biden told supporters in Michigan through a blue surgical mask. “It’s not about being a tough guy. It’s about doing your part.”
The second Trump-Biden debate, scheduled for October 15, is now in doubt.
The news of Trump’s infection came after one of his closest advisers, Hope Hicks, tested positive, raising fears that a cluster of cases emanated from the heart of the White House.
Trump met with dozens of people during the week and reportedly went to a fundraiser in New Jersey after it became known that Hicks had contracted the virus.
Vice President Mike Pence and other top figures tested negative. The White House said Coney Barrett was also negative.
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