US President Donald Trump has tested positive for COVID-19. President Donald Trump said in a video on Twitter Saturday evening that he’s “starting to feel good.”
Shortly afterward, his chief of staff acknowledged in an interview with Fox News that the President’s oxygen levels had “dropped rapidly” Friday morning, raising more questions about the White House’s repeated refusals on Saturday to say whether Trump had needed supplemental oxygen.
Those messages were among the latest in a string of contradictory and often misleading information about Trump’s diagnosis with Covid-19 and his condition since being transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Friday evening.
US President Donald Trump is doing “very well” in hospital after his Covid-19 diagnosis, his doctors say, but their account has been disputed.
Dr Sean Conley said the president was not being given extra oxygen for now and had been fever-free for 24 hours.
Moments later, the White House chief of staff expressed concern about the president’s condition, saying he was not yet on a clear path to recovery.
Mr Trump faces Joe Biden in the 3 November presidential election.
The positive diagnosis, made public by the president in a tweet early on Friday, has upended his campaign and also cast doubt on his attempt to get a new Supreme Court judge confirmed before polling day.
The president is expected to remain at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center close to Washington DC for a “few days”, according to the White House. Dr Conley said he was “cautiously optimistic” about Mr Trump’s condition but that he could not give a timetable for his discharge.
The doctors’ assessment was contradicted by Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, who told reporters the president’s vital signs over the last 24 hours had been “very concerning” and that the next 48 hours would be critical.
The president, being 74, a man and someone categorised as obese, is in a higher-risk category for Covid-19. He has so far been treated with an experimental drug cocktail injection and antiviral medication remdesivir. The media states that it can be crucial within Next twenty four hours.