TRUMP HOSPITALIZED WITH COVID-19
Stay of ‘few days’ a precaution, aides say; first lady Melania also ill
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will spend a “few days” at a military hospital after contracting COVID-19, the White House said Friday, as the virus that has killed more than 208,000 Americans spread to the highest reaches of the U.S. government. Trump “remains fatigued,” his doctor said.
Trump — wearing a face mask — walked out of the
White House and departed by helicopter Friday evening for Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The White House said the visit was precautionary and that he would work from the hospital’s presidential suite, which is equipped to allow him to continue his official duties.
“President Trump remains in good spirts, has mild symptoms, and has been working throughout the day,“said press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. “Out of an abundance of
caution, and at the recommendation of his physician and medical experts, the president will be working from the presidential offices at Walter Reed for the next few days.”
Earlier Friday, the White House said Trump had been injected with an experimental antibody cocktail by the White House physician.
Just a month before the presi dential e l e c t i on, Trump’s revelation that he was positive for the virus came by tweet about 1 a.m. Eastern Time after he had returned from an afternoon political fundraiser. He had gone ahead, saying nothing to the crowd though knowing he had been exposed to an aide with the disease that has infected millions in America and killed more than a million people worldwide.
First lady Melania Trump also tested positive, the president said, and several others in the White House have, too, prompting concern that the White House or even Trump himself might have spread the virus further.
Trump has spent much of the year downplaying the threat of the virus, rarely wearing a protective mask and urging states and cities to “reopen” and reduce or eliminate shutdown rules.
The president’s physician said in a memo late Friday that Trump received a dose of an experimental antibody cocktail by Regeneron that is in clinical trials. Navy Cmdr. Dr. Sean Conley said Trump “remains fatigued but in good spirits” and that a team of experts was evaluating both the president and first lady in regard to next steps.
The first lady, who is 50, has a “mild cough and headache,” Conley reported, and the remainder of the first family, including the Trumps’ son Barron, who lives at the White House, tested negative.
Both Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris have tested negative, their campaign said. Vice President Mike Pence tested negative for
the virus Friday morning and “remains in good health,” his spokesman said.
Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who was with him and many others on Saturday and has been on Capitol Hill meeting with lawmakers, also tested negative, the White House said.
Trump’s diagnosis was sure to have a destabilizing effect in Washington and around the world, raising questions about how far the virus has spread through the highest levels of the U.S. government. Hours before Trump announced he had contracted the virus, the White House said a top aide who had traveled with him during the week had tested positive.
“Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately,” Trump tweeted just before 1 a.m. “We will get through t hi s TOGETHER!”
While House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Friday tried to assure the public that Trump was conducting business as usual, even as he confirmed the White House knew Hope Hicks, the aide, had tested positive before Trump attended a Thursday fundraiser in New Jersey.
“I can tell you in terms of Hope Hicks, we discovered that right as Marine One was taking off yesterday,” said Meadows. Several staffers were pulled from the trip, but Trump did not cancel and there was no direct evidence that her illness was connected to his.
Many White House and senior administration officials were tested Friday, but the full scale of the outbreak around the president may not be known for some time as it can take days for an infection to be detectable by a test. The White House Medical Unit was tracing the president’s contacts.
Trump was last seen by reporters returning to the White House on Thursday evening and did not appear ill. He is 74 and clinically obese, putting him at higher risk of serious complications from a virus that has infected more than 7 million people nationwide.
Trump has been trying all year to convince the American public that the worst of the pandemic is behind them. In the best of cases, if he develops few symptoms, which can include fever, cough and breathing trouble, it will likely force him off the campaign trail.
In a tweet, Biden said he and his wife “send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a swift recovery. We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family.”