Trump doing well and could be discharged on Monday, doctors say

Ns News Online Desk: US President Donald Trump has continued to improve after his Covid-19 diagnosis and could be discharged from hospital as early as Monday, his doctors say. Dr Sean Conley said Mr Trump’s oxygen level had dropped twice since his diagnosis, and he was started on a steroid called dexamethasone.

The president was given extra oxygen at least once, Dr Conley said. The doctors also sought to clarify earlier confusion caused by conflicting statements about Mr Trump’s condition.

The president’s Covid-19 diagnosis, which he made public in a tweet early on Friday, has upended his election campaign. Mr Trump faces Democratic challenger Joe Biden on 3 November.

In a four-minute video posted on Twitter on Saturday night, the president – dressed in a suit jacket and shirt with no tie – said he was feeling “much better now” and that the next few days would be the “real test”.

A number of people around the president have tested positive, including First Lady Melania Trump. Many of them attended an announcement at the White House last weekend that is being scrutinized as a possible “super-spreader event”speaking at a news conference at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center close to Washington DC, Dr Conley said Mr Trump’s oxygen level had dropped twice since his positive test.

The first episode happened on Friday morning at the White House, he said, when the president had a high fever and his oxygen level was below 94% – a healthy person’s level is 95% or higher. The president was given supplemental oxygen “for about an hour”, the doctor said, and was flown to Walter Reed in the evening. The news had already been widely reported in US media, and Dr Conley’s confirmation came after he refused to answer several questions about the issue during Saturday’s briefing.