Adding to the confusion about his status, Trump briefly left Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda to wave to supporters from a motorcade, after releasing a video on Twitter thanking people who had gathered outside the facility.
“We’re getting great reports from the doctors,” Trump said in the video before promising a “little surprise” to his supporters. “It’s been a very interesting journey. I learned a lot about covid.”
At a news conference earlier Sunday, Trump’s medical team tried to clear up the muddled picture it had created the previous day when White House doctor Sean Conley falsely suggested that Trump had not been given supplemental oxygen.
Doctors treating Donald Trump said he could soon be discharged from hospital if he continued his recovery from the coronavirus. Trump posted an optimistic message following conflicting reports on his health.
US President Donald Trump briefly left the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to greet his supporters outside, waving at them from his presidential motorcade on Sunday.
Trump previously posted a video saying there have been “great reports” from the doctors before thanking them. He added that he met soldiers and first responders at the hospital, and pledged to pay a “little surprise visit” to supporters outside the medical center.
He also said he learned a lot about COVID-19. “This is the real school, this isn’t the ‘let’s read a book’ school,” said Trump during the video.
Some medical experts criticized Trump’s public appearance outside the hospital. James Phillips, chief of disaster medicine at George Washington University called the motorcade “political theater” and “insanity.”
“Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary Presidential ‘drive-by’ just now has to be quarantined for 14 days,” said Phillips. “They may get sick. They may die. For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity.”
Earlier on Sunday, the White House physician said Trump’s condition “has continued to improve,” but he had suffered from serious symptoms on Friday. The press conference was seen as an attempt to clear up contradictory statements and questions about the seriousness of the president’s health.
Dr. Sean Conley acknowledged the confusion during a press conference Sunday outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where Trump is being treated for COVID-19.
Conley said the president had a “high fever” and a blood oxygen level below 94% on Friday before he was hospitalized. Trump received supplemental oxygen for about an hour at the White House.
Trump ‘fever-free’
Doctors said Trump will be treated for five days with the steroid dexamethasone to help with lung function after his oxygen level dropped on Friday and Saturday.
“The president has continued to improve,” said Conley, adding that Trump has been “fever-free” for 24 hours.
Trump could return to the White House on Monday if his condition continues to be stable, doctors said.
Dr. Sean Dooley, another member of Trump’s medical team, said the president was in “exceptionally good spirits” Sunday, was not on oxygen assistance, not having difficulty breathing and was walking around the hospital.
Dooley quoted Trump as saying, “I feel like I could walk out of here today.”
The New Jersey Department of Health tweeted that the White House gave New Jersey officials at least 206 names of people who attended events surrounding Trump’s Thursday fundraising trip to Bedminster. The event occurred just hours before he tested positive for the virus.
Source: Washington Post DW
