WASHINGTON (AP) – Donald Trump is “very well” in his hospital treatment for Covid-19, his doctors said Saturday, but a source with knowledge of the president’s condition said his vital signs had been concerning and that the next 48 hours were critical.
Trump is up and walking, has been fever-free for 24 hours, and his cough, nasal congestion and fatigue are improving, said Dr. Sean Conley during the first medical update on his condition since the president was admitted to the Walter Military Medical Center. Reed on Friday.
Trump is not getting additional oxygen, he added, and “is doing very well.”
“We have monitored his heart function, his kidney function, his liver function. All of that is normal,” said another member of the medical team, Sean Dooley.
But a source familiar with the president’s health gave a far more troubling assessment.
“The president’s vital signs during the last 24 hours were very worrying and the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care,” the source said. “We are not yet on a clear path to a full recovery.”
The White House has not commented on the evaluation.
Conley was evasive when asked if Trump had received supplemental oxygen at some point since he became ill, only confirming that he had not received it at the hospital or on Thursday, the day he was tested.
This leaves the possibility that he was on oxygen at the White House on Friday before being admitted to Walter Reed, and there were reports in the US media, not confirmed by AFP, that that was the case.
Shortly after Trump arrived at the hospital, Conley said in a memo that the president was starting treatment with remdesivir and had received an eight-gram dose of an experimental cocktail of polyclonal antibodies.
Conley would not set a “hard date” for Trump’s discharge from the hospital or reveal the president’s temperature.
Amid the optimistic assessment from the White House, more people close to the president revealed that they tested positive for the coronavirus.
The latest is campaign advisor Chris Christie, who was one of several aides helping Trump prepare for the first presidential debate that has since announced positive evidence.
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 military medical center outside Washington, and possibly for many days afterward, his campaign plans were in disarray ahead of a potentially election. 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 Friday night.
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.
The president, a prolific tweeter, stayed away from social media for most of Friday.
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, contracted the new coronavirus. 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.
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 trail, 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.
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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