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Media signaturePresident Donald Trump: “We’ll see what happens in the next few days.”
US President Donald Trump says he’s fine, but the next few days will be the “real test”.
He posted a video on Twitter a second night ago at the hospital in which he was being treated for Covid-19.
The president’s doctor said late Saturday that Mr. Trump had made “significant progress” but was “not out of the woods”.
Saturday was marked by a series of seemingly conflicting remarks about the state of the president.
Shortly after the medical team issued a generally optimistic update, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said the president’s condition was “very worrying.”
Sources close to the president said he was not pleased with Mr. Meadows’ comments.
- Read the latest updates here
A number of people around the president have tested positive, including First Lady Melania Trump. Many of them attended a crowded White House event last weekend that saw Amy Coney Barrett named Supreme Court Justice. It is being investigated as a possible “super-spreader event”.
According to US media, the last positive test was for Nicholas Luna, a close personal assistant to the President.
The president’s positive Covid-19 diagnosis, which he published in a tweet earlier on Friday, changed his campaign. He meets Democratic challenger Joe Biden on November 3rd.
What did Trump say in his video from the hospital?
In the four-minute message posted late Saturday, Mr Trump, dressed in a suit jacket and shirt without a tie, thanked the doctors and nurses at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near Washington DC, where he is being treated.
“I came here, didn’t feel so good, now I’m much better,” he said, adding later, “In the next few days I think this is the real test. We’ll see what happens the next a few days. “
He said he wanted to go back to the campaign.
“I’ll be back. I think I’ll be back soon. I look forward to ending the campaign the way it started,” he said.
“We are going to beat this coronavirus or whatever you want to call it. And we are going to beat it solidly.”
What do we know about its condition?
A number of statements on Saturday painted a confusing picture, but the latest update from Mr Trump’s doctor, Dr. Sean Conley says, “while the team is still out of the woods, it remains cautiously optimistic” about the president’s condition.
He couldn’t give a schedule for the release.
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Media signatureThe doctors who care for the US president say they are “cautiously optimistic, but he is fine”.
In an earlier update on Saturday morning outside Walter Reed Hospital, Dr. Conley said the president was not given supplemental oxygen and had been fever free for 24 hours.
However, the comments made by Mark Meadows to journalists after that press conference painted a much worse picture.
“The president’s vital signs for the past 24 hours have been very worrying and the next 48 hours will be critical to his upkeep,” he said, adding, “We are still not on a clear path to a full recovery.”
The comments reportedly upset Mr Trump, and Mr Meadows later tried to clarify his statement on Fox News. He said the president had “made incredible improvements over yesterday (Friday) morning when I knew some of us, the doctor and I, were very concerned”.
He said Mr. Trump “had a fever and his blood oxygen levels dropped quickly” even though “there is never any risk of a change of power”.
Sources have told US media that Mr Trump was given supplemental oxygen in the White House.
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Media signaturePresident Trump is seven days before his Covid-positive test
At the press conference on Saturday morning, Dr. Conley refused to say whether the president had ever been given oxygen, despite repeated questioning. “Nobody at this moment and yesterday with the team while we were all here was out of oxygen,” he said.
Dr. Conley later said he “misspelled” when apparently pointing out that Mr. Trump was diagnosed with Covid-19 on Wednesday.
The 74-year-old president, a man and someone classified as obese, belongs to a higher risk category for Covid-19. To date, he has been treated with an experimental drug cocktail injection and two doses of antiviral medication Remdesivir.
Mr Trump’s team said he spent most of the afternoon “doing business and moving around the medical suite without difficulty”.
First Lady Melania Trump, who also tested positive for Covid-19, is said to be doing well and is still resting in the White House.
Who else around the president has tested positive?
Aside from the President and First Lady, it has now been confirmed that at least six other people who attended the Rose Garden event for Amy Coney Barrett have the virus.
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Media signatureSenator Mike Lee, who later tested positive for Covid-19, saw him hug other participants
On Saturday, campaign advisor and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie became the youngest participant to report a positive result.
Other people who have tested positive for Mr Trump include close aide Hope Hicks – believed to be the first to show symptoms – campaign manager Bill Stepien and former White House aide Kellyanne Conway.
Nicholas Luna, the last person to test positive, is a personal assistant or “body man” to the President. He is in constant contact with Mr. Trump and takes care of his papers.
What about the political situation?
Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate would postpone its work in full session until October 19, but that work on the Judiciary Committee – which will review Judge Barrett’s nomination – will continue.
Two senators who tested positive sit on the committee.
Mr Trump remains responsible. Vice President Mike Pence, who would be constitutionally transferred to power by the President if he got too sick to do his job, tested negative.
The president’s campaign team said Saturday it would move “at full speed” until Mr Trump could return to campaign.
It calls on the top “surrogate mothers”, including Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric, and Vice President Mike Pence, to “push” the campaign for the time being.
A campaign spokesman called Operation Maga told Fox News that the first event would be a virtual rally on Monday.
Mr Pence will discuss Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Wednesday.
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Joe Biden attends a virtual event in Wilmington, Delaware
Joe Biden has continued his campaign despite stopping negative publicity for the president and holding a virtual event on Saturday.
On a trip to Michigan, he said, “I don’t want to attack the President and the First Lady now.”
But he added that the president’s response to the pandemic had been “incomprehensible”.
“I find this one of the most despicable things I’ve come across in my entire career,” he said.
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