Doctors Say President Trump is ‘Doing Really Well’ With COVID-19 Treatment, Could Return to the White House as Early as Monday

What’s the story?

• Doctors offered an update on Sunday about President Donald Trump’s ongoing treatment for coronavirus (COVID-19) at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he has been staying and working out of the presidential suite since Friday evening.
• Dr. Brian Garibaldi of Johns Hopkins University, a pulmonologist and biocontainment specialist who is part of the team consulting on the president’s treatment, suggested that Trump could be discharged from the hospital as early as Monday:

“If he continues to look and feel as well as he does today, our hope is that we can plan for a discharge as early as tomorrow to the White House where he can continue his treatment course.”

• Dr. Sean Conley, the physician to the president, shed more light on the course of Trump’s COVID-19 symptoms. Late Thursday night and early Friday morning, the president was doing well with mild symptoms. At the time, Trumps’ oxygen level was in the normal range over 95%. Patients can experience complications when it drops below 90% that worsen if it declines toward 80%, but Conley said they have no record that Trump’s blood oxygen has dropped below 90% at any point.
• By late Friday morning the president had a high fever and his blood oxygen level dipped below 94%. Trump received supplemental oxygen for an hour, despite being “fairly adamant” with Conley that it wasn’t needed, and his oxygen levels rose back into the normal range. That “rapid progression” prompted the recommendation that the president be moved to Walter Reed’s presidential suite.
• Conley said the president’s blood oxygen level dropped again Saturday morning to about 93%, and that the medical team gave the president a dose of dexamethasone (a steroid that has helped COVID patients who require oxygen) in response to the transient drops in oxygen levels. Trump’s blood oxygen level has been in the range of 96% to 98% since then.
• Additionally, the doctors noted that Trump has been fever-free since Friday, tolerated his second dose of remdesivir well amid his five day treatment course, and has no shortness of breath or other significant respiratory symptoms. 
• Conley also responded to questions from reporters about conflicting information released by the medical team and the White House on Saturday, saying:

“I was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude of the team, that the president, that his course of illness has had. I didn’t want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction, and in doing so, you know, it came off that we were trying to hide something, which wasn’t necessarily true. The fact of the matter is that he’s doing really well.”

• On Saturday night, President Trump tweeted out a video to “thank all of the incredible medical professionals” and to update the public that he is feeling “much better” and “will be back soon”:

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: White House via Flickr / Public Domain)