WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — President Trump’s physician Dr. Sean Conley and medical team treating the president for COVID-19 provided an update Sunday from Walter Reed Medical Center.
Conley said the president remained without fever since Friday with “no complaints of shortness of breath or any other symptoms.”
The medical team continues to monitor the President Trump’s “cardiac, liver and kidney functions that are normal.”
Another physician, Dr. Brian Garibaldi from Johns Hopkins, told reporters that the president received a second dose of Remdesivir and has had no side effects. He says the plan is to continue using the 5-day course of the drug.
According to Dr. Garibaldi the president “feels well” and says the plan is to “have him eat and drink and be up out of bed as much as possible, to be mobile and 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.”
According to a source on Saturday, President Donald Trump went through a “very concerning” period and faces a “critical” next two days in his fight against COVID-19 at a military hospital — in contrast to an assessment moments earlier by Trump doctors.
Trump remained at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Sunday. Trump released a 4-minute video Saturday evening where he said he’s beginning to feel better and hoped to “be back soon.”
And he was back on social media early Sunday morning, sharing a video of flag-waving supporters, most not wearing masks, gathered outside Walter Reed.
“Thank you so much!” Trump tweeted at 7:18 a.m.
Later Sunday, Trump released another video on Twitter, saying he had learned a lot about the coronavirus.
“I learned a lot about Covid,” he said. “I learned it by really going to school. This is the real school. This isn’t the let’s-read-the-books school. And I get it, and I understand it and it’s a very interesting thing.”
Saturday’s briefing by the president’s physician, Dr. Sean Conley and other doctors raised more questions. Conley did not say whether the president ever needed supplemental oxygen, despite repeated questioning, and declined to share details, including how high a fever Trump had been running before it came back down to a normal range. Conley also revealed that Trump had begun exhibiting “clinical indications” of COVID-19 on Thursday afternoon, earlier than previously known.
“Thursday, no oxygen. None at this moment. And yesterday with the team, while we were all here, he was not on oxygen,” Conley said.
But according to an Associated Press source familiar with Trump’s condition, Trump was administered oxygen at the White House on Friday morning, before he was transported to the military hospital by helicopter that evening.
Conley said that Trump’s symptoms, including a mild cough, nasal congestion and fatigue, “are now resolving and improving,” and that the president had been fever-free for 24 hours. But Trump also is taking aspirin, which lowers body temperature and could mask or mitigate that symptom.
In an update Saturday night, Trump’s chief doctor expressed cautious optimism but added that the president was “not yet out of the woods.”
“He’s in exceptionally good spirits,” said another doctor, Sean Dooley. He said Trump’s heart, kidney and liver functions were normal and he was not having trouble breathing or walking around.
In an evening health update, Conley said Trump had been up and moving around his medical suite without difficulty and conducting business. “While not yet out of the woods, the team remains cautiously optimistic,” he said.
In the hospital video, Trump defended his decision to continue campaigning and holding large events during a pandemic.
“I had no choice,” said Trump, who refused to abide by basic public health recommendations, including mask-wearing. “I had to be out front. … I can’t be locked up in a room upstairs and totally safe. … As a leader, you have to confront problems.”
Trump also thanked his medical team and hailed the treatments he was receiving.
First lady Melania Trump remained at the White House to recover from her own bout with the virus. She was “really handling it very nicely,” Trump said in the video, noting with a touch of humor that she was “just a little tiny bit younger” — in fact, 24 years younger.
This story will be updated with the latest updates throughout the day.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.