COVID-19: Trump Treated With Dexamethasone

Trump’s doctor “extremely happy” with covid progress.

President Trump, who has spent a second night in hospital after being diagnosed with Covid-19, says: “I’m doing well”

National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien says Trump will stay at Walter Reed as critical days lie ahead.

Dr Sean Conley said Mr Trump’s oxygen level dropped for a second time on Saturday and he was started on a steroid called dexamethasone.

He also said Mr Trump had been given supplementary oxygen. On Saturday night, Mr Trump said the next few days would be the “real test”.

In the four-minute video on Twitter, Mr Trump, dressed in a suit jacket and shirt with no tie, thanked the doctors and nurses at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center close to Washington DC.

“I came here, wasn’t feeling so well, I’m much better now,” he said, later adding: “Over the next period of a few days I guess that’s the real test. We’ll be seeing what happens over those next couple of days.” Mr Trump’s message came hours after conflicting remarks about his health, with the White House chief of staff Mark Meadows saying his condition had been “very concerning”, contradicting an earlier upbeat assessment given by the president’s doctors.\

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But on Sunday, Dr Conley sought to clarify the statements, saying: “I didn’t want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction. And in and in doing so, you know, it came off that we were trying to hide something, which wasn’t necessarily true.”

Dexamethasone is shown in studies to improve survival for patients in hospital with severe Covid-19. Steroids calm down inflammation and the immune system, which is why they are already used in conditions like arthritis and asthma, as well as in some severe infections.

The drugs are not thought to be helpful in the early stages of a coronavirus infection. But as the disease develops, the immune system can go into overdrive, damaging the lungs and other organs – it is this stage that steroids are thought to help with.

The president’s positive Covid-19 diagnosis, which he made public in a tweet early on Friday, has upended his election campaign. He faces Democratic challenger Joe Biden on 3 November. 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 on the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett as a Supreme Court judge. It is being scrutinised as a possible “super-spreader event”.

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Trump’s doctor says he misspoke when he said the president had been diagnosed more than a day before he told the nation.

US First Lady Melania Trump is among a growing group of people around Mr Trump who also have the virus – she is recuperating at the White House

At least seven people who attended a White House event last week, including the Trumps, have now tested positive to the virus.

Trump, 74, has been criticised for playing down severity of virus and often spurning masks and social distancing during most social gatherings.

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If you’re just joining in, President Donald Trump has spent a second night in hospital after falling ill with coronavirus.

Here’s the latest:

• On Sunday morning, the president posted on Twitter to thank supporters who had rallied in Washington DC and elsewhere to wish him a speedy recovery.

• He earlier said he was feeling “much better” and was looking forward to resuming an election campaign upended by his diagnosis.

• On Saturday, Trump’s doctor said his medical team was “cautiously optimistic” but the president was “not out of the woods yet”.

• That statement followed mixed messages from the hospital and the White House that led to confusion over the timeline of the president’s illness.

• The doctor’s statement was seemingly contradicted by the president’s chief of staff, who said earlier on Saturday that Trump’s vital signs over the last 24 hours had been “very concerning” and that the next 48 hours would be critical.

• Meanwhile, a well-attended event on the White House lawn is coming under scrutiny after eight people there, including Trump and his wife Melania, were confirmed to have tested positive. Many attendees sat close together and did not wear masks, while some bumped fists, shook hands or even hugged one another in greeting.