(Oct. 5) President Donald Trump said on Twitter that he’ll leave Walter Reed hospital Monday evening after being treated for Covid-19, calling on Americans not to fear the novel coronavirus. “Don’t let it dominate your life,” Trump tweeted Monday afternoon. “We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”
The virus has infected more than 7.4 million Americans and has killed more than 210,000 since February, including 475 on Sunday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“Over the past 24 hours, the president has continued to improve. He’s met or exceeded all hospital discharge criteria,” White House physician Sean Conley said at a briefing after Trump’s announcement.
Trump “may not entirely be out of the woods” but the rest of his care can safely be performed at the White House, Conley said.
The president will receive a fourth dose of an antiviral drug, Remdesivir, at Walter Reed before he’s discharged and a fifth dose at the White House, his medical team said.
“He’s returning to a facility, the White House medical unit, that’s staffed 24-7,” Conley said. “Every day a patient stays in the hospital unnecessarily is a risk to themselves.”
It isn’t clear how long Trump will remain isolated at the White House before resuming campaign travel. Conley said coronavirus patients can stop shedding the virus in as few as five days after diagnosis, and that Trump would be monitored to determine when he is no longer infectious.
But Conley conceded that the course of Trump’s illness could still take a turn. “We all remain cautiously optimistic and on guard because we’re in a bit of uncharted territory when it comes to a patient that received the therapies he has so early in the course,” he said.
“We’re looking to this weekend,” Conley added. “If we can get through to Monday with him remaining the same or improving, better yet, then we will all take that final deep sigh of relief.”
Trump has received doses of two other powerful medicines, including an experimental “antibody cocktail” and a steroid, dexamethasone, usually used to combat inflammation in people with more severe cases of Covid-19.
One of Trump’s doctors read off a list of the president’s vital signs as of this morning, including his temperature, blood pressure, respiratory rate, heart rate and blood-oxygen saturation level. His medical team has not previously released that data to the public.
But Conley declined to discuss the results of scans of Trump’s lungs, citing federal health privacy law.
Trump has been in the hospital since Friday evening, after announcing early that morning he’d tested positive for the virus. He was briefly administered supplemental oxygen at the White House before traveling to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Conley said Sunday.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said earlier Monday that a decision on Trump’s release from the hospital would be made after consultations with medical staff.
The White House hadn’t provided any update on Trump’s health in more than 24 hours, and before announcing he’d leave the hospital, Trump himself hadn’t said anything about his condition on Twitter since shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany meanwhile said Monday she tested positive for the novel coronavirus, adding her to a growing list of infected Trump associates that includes First Lady Melania Trump, at least two White House aides who travel with the president and three Republican senators.
McEnany said she is not experiencing symptons of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Trump’s health improved over the weekend, said the people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing his condition. The president has been eager to leave the hospital.
“We have further evaluations and consultations that have to take place between the president and his medical team,” Meadows said Monday morning on Fox News. “It’s going to be, at the earliest, this afternoon,” he said of the decision on Trump’s possible discharge.
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