White House doctor says Trump doing ‘very well’ at hospital
Published:Saturday | October 3, 2020 | 11:23 AM
BETHESDA, Maryland (AP) — President Donald Trump’s doctor says he is doing “very well” as he spends the weekend at a military hospital for treatment of COVID-19.
Navy Commander Dr Sean Conley said Trump has been fever-free for 24 hours as he updates the nation on the president’s condition from the hospital Saturday morning.
Trump was admitted Friday after testing positive for the coronavirus.
While Conley said the president is not currently on oxygen, he refused to say whether the president had ever been on oxygen, despite repeated questioning.
He said that Trump’s symptoms, including a cough and nasal congestion, “are now resolving and improving.”
“He’s in exceptionally good spirits,” said another doctor, Sean Dooley.
The decision to have Conley brief reporters marks a change in strategy by the White House, which has so far been less than transparent about the virus’s spread.
It was a reporter for Bloomberg News – not the White House — that broke news that a close aide to Trump had been infected. And aides so far have declined to share basic health information about the president, including a full accounting of his symptoms, what tests he’s undertaken and the results.
In a memo released shortly before midnight, Conley did report that Trump had been treated at the hospital with remdesivir, an antiviral medication, after taking another experimental drug at the White House.
He added that Trump is “doing very well” and is “not requiring any supplemental oxygen.”
The White House said Trump was expected to stay at the hospital for “a few days” out of an abundance of caution and that he would continue to work from the hospital’s presidential suite, which is equipped to allow him to keep up his official duties.
In addition to accessibility to tests and equipment, the decision was made, at least in part, with the understanding that moving him later, if he took a turn for the worse, could send a worrying signal.
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