TRUMP TAKEN TO HOSPITAL
President diagnosed with COVID
WASHINGTON • U.S. President Donald Trump moved to a military hospital for treatment on Friday after being diagnosed with COVID-19 as his administration and election campaign scrambled to adjust to an extraordinary twist in his turbulent presidency.
Roughly 17 hours after he announced that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, Trump walked slowly from the White House to a waiting helicopter to be taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. He wore a mask and did not speak to reporters.
Trump will stay in a special suite in the hospital for the next few days as a precautionary measure, White House press secretary Kayleigh Mcenany said.
“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,” she said in a statement.
Trump, 74, has a mild fever, according to a source familiar with the matter. White House doctor Sean P. Conley said he is being treated with an experimental drug cocktail and is “fatigued but in good spirits.” The move came just hours after Conley had said he expected the president to carry out his duties “without disruption” while he recovers.
“The President and First Lady are both well at this time, and they plan to remain at home within the White House during their convalescence,” Conley had written in a memo distributed early afternoon on Friday, prior to the trip to the hospital.
Conley said the president was being treated with Regeneron's polyclonal antibody cocktail as well as zinc, vitamin D, famotidine, melatonin and aspirin.
While at the White House, Trump did not attend the one conference call that had not been cancelled from his diary Friday. However, he was said to have made calls to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows as well as Mitch Mcconnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, and Senator Lindsey Graham, a close confidant.
“Just finished a great phone call with Potus. He's in good spirits and we talked business,” Mcconnell tweeted, adding that they discussed the confirmation process for Trump's choice to fill the open Supreme Court seat.
Vice President Mike Pence and his wife tested negative, a Pence spokesman said.
A White House official said Pence would work from his own residence and his staff was being kept separated from Trump's staff “out of an abundance of caution.”
Polls show Trump trailing his Democratic opponent, former vice president Joe Biden — who also tested negative, as did his wife, Jill.
Biden said on Twitter that he and Jill wished Trump and the First Lady a speedy recovery. “We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family,” he said.
Several other White House figures also received negative results Friday, including Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter; Barron Trump, his son; Jared Kushner, his son-in-law; and senior cabinet ministers and advisers.
However, Kellyanne Conway, a former counsellor to Trump, said on Friday she had tested positive for COVID-19. Three White House journalists also have positive results.
After leaving the White House, Trump tweeted a video in which he said, “I think I'm doing very well.”
“We're going to make sure that things work out,” he said. “The first lady is doing very well.”
Trump, 74, is at high risk because of his age and weight. He has remained in good health during his time in office but is not known to exercise regularly or to follow a healthy diet. That gives him a notional risk of around four per cent of dying from it, health experts said.
However, the president plays golf and normally appears to walk quickly, which experts say is an indicator of good health. He does not drink or smoke, which are also risk factors for severe COVID.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that people aged 65 to 74 have a five times higher risk of hospital admission compared with those aged 18 to 29, and a 90 per cent higher risk of death. (Melania is younger — just 50, has a healthier weight and, as a female, is also at far less risk of becoming seriously ill. The 19 and Me COVID calculator estimates that Melania has a five per cent risk of hospitalization, just 1.3 per cent risk of needing intensive care treatment.)
Trump advisers acknowledged they would have to rip up their plans for the final weeks of the election campaign. Trump has held in-person rallies with supporters who mainly decline to wear masks.
On Wednesday, Trump held an outdoor campaign rally in Duluth, Minn., with hundreds of attendees. Video shows him tossing campaign caps into the crowd, not all of whom were wearing masks.
Trump's condition also means that others at the highest levels of the U.S. government have been exposed and may have to quarantine, too. A White House official said early on Friday that contact tracing was under way.
On Thursday night, shortly after Trump predicted the pandemic's end was in sight, news broke that Hope Hicks, a trusted aide, had tested positive for the virus. Hicks travelled with the president on Air Force One on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Trump flew to New Jersey after White House officials learned of
WE WILL CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF THE PRESIDENT AND HIS FAMILY.
Hicks's diagnosis, and attended a fundraiser at his golf club and delivered a speech. He was in close contact with other people, including campaign supporters.
The crowd of about 100 people was kept about 10 metres from Trump, a source familiar with the event said.
Speculation was rife that the Republicans may need to slow down their push to have Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett confirmed before the election. Barrett also received a negative coronavirus result Friday.
Prior to Trump's trip to the hospital, Senate Republicans had said they will press forward with the confirmation process, with Judiciary Committee hearings set to begin on Oct. 12.
Whether either of the two remaining head-to-head presidential debates, on Oct. 15 and 22, will go ahead is up in the air.