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US President Donald Trump could be released from the hospital on Monday if his condition improves, his medical team said, as more details of his coronavirus infection were revealed.
Speaking in front of Walter Reed Medical Center, where Trump is spending a third day, White House physician Sean Conley said that “since we last spoke, the president has continued to improve.”
“If he continues to look and feel as good as today, our hope is that we can plan for a discharge as soon as tomorrow to the White House, where he will be able to continue his treatment,” said Dr. Brian Garibaldi.
Conley elaborated on Trump’s health in recent days, confirming that the president was administered oxygen at the White House on Friday for about an hour and a small dose of oxygen on Saturday.
He said the president had two episodes of “temporary drops in his oxygen saturation levels” on Friday and had a high fever. Trump’s oxygen levels also fell again on Saturday, he said.
The latest update on the president’s Covid-19 status comes after a day of mixed messages from the White House. During her briefing on Saturday morning, Conley said 72 hours had passed since the president’s diagnosis, suggesting a different timeline than what was publicly known when the president tested positive for coronavirus.
Clarification issued
He then issued a clarification stating that he was wrong and that he used the term “72 hours” instead of “third day.” Additionally, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows gave a more negative note in comments to the press shortly after the medical briefing.
“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. We are not yet on a clear path to a full recovery, ”he told reporters.
Donald Trump works in the Presidential Suite at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda. Photograph: Joyce N Boghosian / The White House via AP
When asked yesterday who the public should believe, Mr. Conley or Mr. Meadows, Mr. Conley said that he had been trying to reflect an “optimistic attitude.”
“I was trying to reflect the optimistic attitude that the team, the president, the course of the disease has had,” he said. “I did not want to give any information that could divert the course of the disease in another direction.”
He said that Meadows’ comments had been misinterpreted but declined to answer questions about Trump’s lung scans.
Trump released a four-minute video Saturday night, stating that he was “starting to feel good,” but added: “For the next few days, I think that will be the real test.”
He said he wanted to keep working: “I have to go back because we still have to make America great again … we have to finish that job.”
The White House also released two photos late Saturday night of the president working on documents in an office in the multi-room presidential suite at the Walter Reed Center.
Throughout the weekend, supporters carrying Trump2020 flags have gathered outside the hospital, about eight miles north of the White House.
‘Law and order’
One supporter, Daniel Kiely, a third-generation Irish-American whose family hails from Tarbert, Co Kerry, had come to show his support for the president. “He is here to protect the United States Constitution, law and order… sometimes he can be a bit of a stretch, but he has to, due to all the invective that has been imposed on him. He’s just in defensive mode, ”he said.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows sits on a nearby bench as Sean P Conley, the president’s physician, provides an update on the condition of US President Donald Trump at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. in Bethesda, Maryland, on Sunday. Photograph: Michael Reynolds / EPA
Meanwhile, the network of people in the president’s circle who have so far been known to have been infected with coronavirus has expanded in the past 24 hours.
Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien, former adviser Kellyanne Conway (who attended a ceremony announcing Amy Coney Barrett as the president’s choice for the Supreme Court last Saturday) and three senators tested positive. Additionally, former Gov. Chris Christie, who helped prepare Trump for Tuesday night’s debate at the White House, announced Saturday that he had also tested positive.
Vice President Mike Pence tested negative again on Saturday morning, his officials said, and the Trump campaign announced that he will participate in a campaign event in Arizona on Thursday. Under the constitution, Pence would assume power if the president is incapacitated, although the White House has said there has been no transfer of power and that the president continues to work from the presidential offices in the Walter Reed center.
Higher risk
Trump is 74 years old and clinically obese, putting him at higher risk for serious complications from a virus that has infected more than seven million people nationwide and killed more than 200,000 in the United States.
The administration has been consistently less than transparent about the president’s health as the virus spreads within the White House.
The attendees declined to share basic information about the president’s health, including a full description of his symptoms, the tests he has performed and the results.
The first word that a close associate of Trump had been infected came from the media, not the White House. – Additional reports: AP
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