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US President Donald Trump removes his mask as he returns to the White House from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on October 5, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump spent three days hospitalized for coronavirus. | Win McNamee / Getty Images / AFP
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump told Americans to “get out there” and not fear COVID-19 when he returned to the White House Monday after a three-night hospital stay to be treated for the virus and removed the white surgical mask for posing. images.
When asked how he felt upon arrival at the White House, where his staff has been affected by infections and his reelection campaign overshadowed by the pandemic, Trump said: “Very good,” according to a group report by a journalist who covered his return on behalf of other media.
Trump wore a mask as he exited the helicopter that took him back from a military hospital outside Washington and climbed the stairs of the South Portico of the White House, where he removed it and posed for photographs, waving, waving, and signaling. approval. .
He then turned to walk toward the White House, the mask still in his pocket, television images showed.
The Republican president, who is running for re-election against Democrat Joe Biden in the November 3 US election, was admitted to Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday after being diagnosed with the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
“Don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of him, ”Trump said in a recorded video message. “We go back, we go back to work. We will be in front. … Don’t let it dominate your lives. Come out, be careful. “
The disease has killed more than 1 million people worldwide and more than 209,000 in the United States alone, the highest death toll of any country.
Trump, 74, has not had a fever in more than 72 hours and his oxygen levels are normal, his medical team told reporters outside the hospital. However, doctors declined to discuss any toll the illness could have on the president’s lungs or reveal when Trump last tested negative for the coronavirus.
The team added that the president had received supplemental oxygen twice in recent days.
“He may not be completely out of the woods just yet,” says Dr. Sean. P. Conley, the White House physician, said. “If we can get to Monday with him staying the same or improving, even better, then we will all breathe that last, deep sigh of relief.”
But Conley said the medical team believed Trump was ready to get out of the hospital, emphasizing that he would have world-class medical care around the clock at the White House.
Conley said doctors were in “uncharted territory” because Trump had received certain therapies so early in the course of the illness.
The severity of Trump’s illness has been the subject of intense speculation, with some medical experts pointing out that as an older, overweight man, he was in a category more likely to develop serious complications or die from the disease.
Doctors have also treated it with a steroid, dexmethasone, which is normally used only in the most severe cases.
Trump has often downplayed the threat of the pandemic. In recent days, he released a series of videos to reassure the public that he was recovering from COVID-19.
He was reluctant to go to the hospital last week and was eager to get out, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Monday.
Democratic Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said she hoped Trump’s decision to return to the White House was not politically motivated and expressed concern that he could become a “long-term carrier. “, a term that refers to those who experience complications from COVID-19 over a prolonged period.
Trump’s medical team said it had not put any pressure on the doctors treating him.
Even being discharged, Trump will need to continue treatment, as he is still undergoing a five-day course of an intravenous antiviral drug, remdesivir, and will have to isolate himself for a certain period of time.
The coronavirus outbreak around Trump widened on Monday when White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said she had tested positive for the virus.
McEnany, who is at the forefront of the White House’s often combative dealings with the media, held a briefing for journalists Thursday in which he did not wear a face mask.
Chad Gilmartin and Karoline Leavitt, who work in the White House press office, also tested positive, a source confirmed to Reuters.
Follow-up in surveys
A Reuters / Ipsos poll released on Sunday showed Trump trailing Biden, 77, nationally by 10 percentage points. About 65% of Americans said that Trump would not have been infected if he had taken the virus more seriously.
Trump has repeatedly circumvented social distancing guidelines intended to curb its spread. He also mocked Biden in the presidential debate last Tuesday for wearing a mask at events, even when he is away from other people.
Biden, who has tested negative for the disease multiple times since the debate, said Monday that he was willing to participate in the next presidential debate scheduled for Oct. 15 in Miami if health experts deemed it safe.
Trump intends to participate in the debate, his campaign said.
A return to the White House could help Trump project a sense of normalcy. Before falling ill, she tried to steer the campaign toward America’s economic recovery and the upcoming confirmation hearings of her Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
But the growing number of COVID-19 cases in the White House and in Congress – three Republican senators tested positive for the virus last week – threatens to draw more attention to Trump’s pandemic response.
Major US stock markets closed higher Monday ahead of Trump’s departure from the hospital and amid signs of progress with a new fiscal stimulus bill in Congress. Major Wall Street indices slumped on Friday after Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis.
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