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WASHINGTON (AP) – US President Donald Trump began a fourth day in the military hospital on Monday (Oct. 5), where he is being treated for COVID-19, as his condition was unclear and outside experts they warned that his case could be serious.
The president’s team is treating Trump, 74, with a steroid, dexmethasone, which is typically used only in the most severe cases.
READ: Doctors monitor Trump’s lungs and administer steroids to fight COVID-19
However, his medical team told reporters Sunday that Trump could return to the White House on Monday. Even if he does, he will have to continue treatment, as the Republican president is still undergoing a five-day course of an intravenous antiviral drug, remdesivir. The normal quarantine period for anyone who tests positive for coronavirus is 14 days.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Monday reiterated hope that Trump will soon be released from the hospital.
“He will meet with his doctors and nurses this morning to do further evaluations of his progress,” Meadows told Fox News. “We are still optimistic that he will be able to return to the White House later today.”
LEE: Trump’s COVID-19 case may be severe, experts say
Kidnapped at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington since Friday, Trump has posted a series of videos in an effort to reassure the public that he is recovering from an illness caused by the coronavirus that has infected 7, 4 million Americans and has killed more than 209,000.
On Sunday, he also left his hospital room to ride in a White House caravan that drove him along with supporters gathered outside the hospital. Dressed in a suit jacket, shirt but no tie and a black mask, it marked Trump’s first in-person public appearance since Friday.
Critics and medical experts criticized Trump for the move, which potentially exposed his car’s personnel to infection.
On Monday, his Twitter account posted a series of more than a dozen messages that included “LAW AND ORDER. VOTE!” and “RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. VOTE!”
A Reuters / Ipsos poll released on Sunday showed Trump trailing Biden by 10 percentage points. About 65 percent of Americans said that Trump would not have been infected if he had taken the virus more seriously.
READ: After Trump Tests Positive, Biden’s Campaign Seeks To Stay Focused On COVID-19 Response
Trump has consistently downplayed the risks of the pandemic since it first emerged this year, and has repeatedly circumvented social distancing guidelines intended to slow its spread.
Trump is under fire for leaving the hospital on Sunday, as well as for his statement that he met with soldiers and first responders at the hospital, movements that potentially expose more people to the virus.
“Every person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary presidential ‘step’ now has to be quarantined for 14 days,” James Phillips, who is also an assistant professor of emergency medicine at George University School of Medicine, said on Twitter. Washington.
“They can get sick. They can die. For political theater.”
LEE: Trump criticized for leaving the hospital to receive his followers in a caravan
CNN quoted a White House official as saying that his wife, Melania, who also tested positive for COVID-19, is not considering leaving the White House.
“Melania Trump is aware of the dangers of COVID-19. Potentially exposing others is not a risk that she would take,” the official said.
U.S. stock index futures rebounded on Monday amid signs of Trump’s possible release and signs of progress with a new fiscal stimulus bill. Wall Street’s major indices slumped on Friday after Trump’s announcement that he had COVID-19.
A return to the White House could help Trump project a sense of normalcy in his difficult battle to win reelection on November 3.
Dr. Sean P Conley, a White House physician, acknowledged Sunday that Trump’s condition had been worse than he previously admitted. Conley said Trump had had a high fever Friday morning and had been given supplemental oxygen after his blood oxygen levels had dropped.
Doctors who were not involved in Trump’s treatment said the president’s condition could be worse than Conley revealed. As an older, overweight man, Trump falls into a category that is more likely to develop serious complications or die from the disease.
Biden, 77, has tested negative for the disease multiple times since he shared a debate stage with Trump last Tuesday. He is due to resume the campaign in person on Monday in Florida, where opinion polls show a close race on a crucial battlefield for the November 3 election.
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