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WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump left the hospital where he was treated for COVID-19 on Monday (October 5) and boarded a helicopter to return to a White House hit by a wave of infections and a campaign more overshadowed by the four-week pandemic. before election day.
“We will be back to Campaign Trail soon !!!” Trump tweeted shortly before leaving the hospital. “Fake news only shows fake polls.”
Wearing what appeared to be a white surgical mask, Trump clenched his fist and raised his thumb as he descended the stairs from Walter Reed Medical Center outside Washington, answering a reporter’s question about how many people in the White House were infected by saying, “Thank you very much.”
President Donald Trump gestures as he returns to the White House on October 5, 2020, in Washington, after leaving Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Trump announced that he tested positive for COVID-19 on October 2 (Photo: AP / Alex Brandon)
The Republican president, who was running for re-election against Democrat Joe Biden in the US elections on November 3, was admitted to hospital on Friday after being diagnosed with the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
He announced Monday morning that he would be leaving Walter Reed Medical Center that night.
“I feel really good! Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it take over your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs and knowledge. I feel better than 20 years ago!” he said on Twitter.
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.
READ: COVID-19 could be spread by airborne transmission: CDC
Trump, 74, has been fever-free in more than 72 hours and his oxygen levels are normal, his medical team said in a briefing outside the hospital. However, doctors declined to discuss any possible 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 yet,” said Dr. Sean Conley, a White House physician. “If we can get to Monday with him staying the same or improving, better yet, then we will all take that last, deep breath of relief.”
However, Conley said the medical team believed that Trump was ready to leave 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 over the past three days, with some medical experts pointing out that as an overweight older man, he was in a category more likely to develop serious complications or die from the illness .
Doctors have also treated it with a steroid, dexmethasone, which is normally used only in the most severe cases.
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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 it could turn out to be an extended term.
Trump’s medical team said it had not put any pressure on the doctors treating him.
Even when he is discharged, Trump will need to continue treatment, as he is still receiving a five-day course of an intravenous antiviral drug, remdesivir, and will have to isolate himself for a certain period of time.
LEE: Trump’s COVID-19 case may be severe, experts say
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.
MONITORING IN SURVEYS
A Reuters / Ipsos poll released on Sunday showed Republican Trump trailing Democratic challenger Joe Biden, 77, nationally 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.
Supporters of United States President Donald Trump show their support outside the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on October 5, 2020 in Bethesda, Maryland. (Photo: AFP / Cyril Julien)
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 presidential debate scheduled for next week if health experts deemed it safe.
A return to the White House could help Trump project a sense of normalcy in his bid to win reelection on November 3. Before falling ill, he had tried to steer the campaign toward America’s economic recovery and the upcoming confirmation hearings for his Supreme Court. Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett.
But the growing number of COVID-19 cases in the Whitkae House and in Congress – three Republican senators tested positive for the virus last week – threatens to draw more attention to Trump’s pandemic response.
Vice President Mike Pence and his wife tested negative for COVID-19 again on Monday, an administration official said. Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, tested negative on Monday, an administration official said.
Pence is scheduled to speak with Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Wednesday in Salt Lake City.
Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who work in the White House, also tested negative for the virus, Ivanka Trump’s spokeswoman said. The president’s wife, Melania, tested positive last week.
Major U.S. equity markets closed sharply higher Monday ahead of Trump’s departure from the hospital and amid signs of progress with a new fiscal stimulus bill in Congress. The major Wall Street indices plummeted on Friday after Trump’s COVID-19 announcement.
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