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US President Donald Trump will be transported to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington DC tonight following his Covid-19 diagnosis.
Trump is being airlifted to a hospital about eight miles north of the White House.
The helicopter remains on the White House lawn tonight.
“President Trump remains in a good mood, has mild symptoms and has been working all day,” said White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
“As a precaution, and on the recommendation of his physician and medical experts, the President will work from the presidential offices in Walter Reed for the next few days. President Trump appreciates the great amount of support for both him and the First Lady. “
Earlier, Trump’s doctor said he was being treated with an experimental drug intended to supply antibodies to help fight his coronavirus infection.
Antibodies are proteins that the body makes when an infection occurs. They stick to a virus and help eliminate it, but it can take weeks to form. The drugs are purified versions of what seemed to work best in laboratory and animal tests.
Trump is receiving a two-antibody combination drug that is currently in late-stage studies from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
The company previously developed a successful treatment for Ebola using a similar approach.
It is given as a single treatment intravenously. Trump’s physician, Dr. Sean Conley, said the drug was being administered “as a precautionary measure” and that the president was also taking zinc, vitamin D, an antacid called famotidine, melatonin and aspirin.
None of them have proven to be effective against Covid-19. Trump appears to be not receiving hydroxychloroquine, a drug that he widely promoted and has been shown in many studies to be ineffective in preventing or treating Covid-19.
On Friday, it was announced that Trump was experiencing “mild symptoms” of Covid-19 after announcing that he and his wife Melania tested positive for coronavirus.
The president, who has spent much of the year downplaying the threat of a virus that has killed more than 205,000 Americans, said he and Mrs. Trump were in quarantine.
The White House doctor said Trump is expected to continue to serve “without interruption” while he recovers.
Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through it TOGETHER!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2020
This cannot be a partisan moment.
It must be an American moment.
We have to unite as a nation.
– Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 2, 2020
I am pleased to report that Jill and I have tested negative for COVID. Thank you all for your messages of concern. Hope this serves as a reminder for you: wear a mask, keep your social distance, and wash your hands.
– Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 2, 2020
Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through it TOGETHER!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2020
A White House official said Trump was experiencing mild symptoms but was working from the White House residence.
Democratic candidate for President of the United States, Joe Biden, and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, tested negative for Covid-19.
Biden and Trump participated in a live debate on Tuesday, raising concerns that the Democratic candidate may have contracted the virus as well.
“I am pleased to report that Jill and I have tested negative for COVID,” Biden tweeted on Friday. Thank you all for your messages of concern. I hope this serves as a reminder to you: put on a mask, keep your social distance, and wash your hands. “
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he had spoken to Trump on the phone and was in a “good mood.”
Trump’s diagnosis is sure to have a destabilizing effect on Washington and around the world, raising questions about the extent to which the virus has spread to the highest levels of the US government.
Hours before Trump announced that he had contracted the virus, the White House said a senior adviser who had traveled with him during the week had tested positive.
“Tonight, FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately, ”Trump tweeted. “We will get out of this TOGETHER!”
Vice President Mike Pence tested negative for the virus on Friday morning and “remains in good health,” his spokesman said.
Administration officials
Many senior White House and administration officials are undergoing testing, but the full scale of the outbreak around the president may not be known for some time, as it may take days for an infection to be detectable by a proof.
Trump was last seen by reporters returning to the White House Thursday night and did not appear visibly ill. He is 74 years old and overweight, putting him at higher risk for serious complications from a virus that has infected more than seven million people across the country.
The president’s doctor said in a memo that Trump and the first lady, who is 50, “are doing well right now” and “plan to stay home inside the White House during their convalescence.”
The diagnosis is a devastating blow to a president who has been desperately trying to convince the American public that the worst of the pandemic is over.
In the best of cases, if he does not show symptoms, it is likely that he will force him to leave the campaign weeks before the elections and question his participation in the second presidential debate, scheduled for October 15.
His handling of the pandemic has already been a major flash point in his career against Biden, who spent much of the summer off-season and at his home in Delaware due to the virus.
Since then, Biden has resumed a more active campaign program, but with small and socially distant crowds. He also regularly wears a mask in public, something Trump mocked him for in Tuesday night’s debate.
“I don’t wear masks like him,” the president said. “Every time you see him, he has a mask. He could be talking 200 feet from me and he appears wearing the largest mask I have ever seen. “
In a tweet Friday morning, Biden said that he and his wife “send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a speedy recovery. We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family. “
Vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her husband tweeted similar sentiments.
On Friday, Trump had been scheduled to receive an intelligence briefing, attend a fundraiser and hold another campaign rally in Florida, but the White House released a revised calendar with only one event: a phone call about “Covid- 19 support for vulnerable older people ”.
Trump’s announcement came hours after he confirmed that Hope Hicks, one of his longest-serving and most trusted aides, had been diagnosed with the virus on Thursday.
Minnesota
She began feeling mild symptoms during the plane ride home from a rally in Minnesota Wednesday night, according to an administration official, and was isolated from other passengers on board the plane.
Ms. Hicks had been with Trump and other senior personnel aboard Marine One and Air Force One en route to that rally and had accompanied the president to Tuesday’s presidential debate in Cleveland, along with members of the Trump family. The Trump contingent removed their masks during the debate, in violation of the rules of the place.
Several White House staff members have previously tested positive for the virus, including Pence’s press secretary Katie Miller, national security adviser Robert O’Brien and one of the president’s personal aides.
But Trump has always downplayed concerns about being personally vulnerable, even after White House staff and their allies were exposed.
Since the coronavirus emerged earlier this year, he has refused to abide by basic public health guidelines, including those issued by his own administration, such as covering his face in public and practicing social distancing. Instead, he continued to hold campaign rallies that drew thousands of supporters, often without a mask.
“I didn’t feel any vulnerability,” he told reporters in May. – PA / AP
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