LAST UPDATE | 3 Oct 2020
US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has been airlifted to a military hospital less than 24 hours after his Covid-19 diagnosis.
Trump was taken by helicopter to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre yesterday and is expected to remain there for “a few days”.
A White House spokeswoman stressed that the hospital stay was “out of an abundance of caution” and that the 74-year-old would work from the hospital’s presidential suite, which is equipped to allow him to continue his official duties.
Trump walked out of the White House wearing a mask before boarding Marine One yesterday evening, and in a video on Twitter said: “I think I’m doing very well, but we’re going to make sure that things work out.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2020
Late yesterday, the president’s physician Sean Conley said the president was doing “very well”.
He added: “He is not requiring any supplemental oxygen, but in consultation with specialists we have elected to initiate Remdesivir therapy”.
Trump tweeted: “Going well, I think! Thank you to all. Love!!!”
In the early hours this morning Irish time, top Trump aide Kellyanne Conway confirmed she’d tested positive for Covid-19.
She said: “My symptoms are mild (light cough) and I’m feeling fine. I have begun a quarantine process in consultation with physicians. As always, my heart is with everyone affected by this global pandemic.”
Tonight I tested positive for COVID-19. My symptoms are mild (light cough) and I’m feeling fine. I have begun a quarantine process in consultation with physicians.
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) October 3, 2020
As always, my heart is with everyone affected by this global pandemic. ❤️
The US has been left reeling by the unfolding events surrounding Trump’s health troubles, with the presidential election only four weeks away.
The president announced his diagnosis in a tweet in the early hours of Friday, following a positive test from one of his closest aides, Hope Hicks.
First Lady Melania Trump has also tested positive and has a “mild cough and headache”, according to the doctor, but the remainder of the first family, including son Barron, who lives at the White House, have tested negative.
The president’s re-election campaign said all events featuring Trump and members of his family would either be postponed or go online, but that vice-president Mike Pence would resume campaigning as he had tested negative.
Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis is the latest among world leaders, with Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier also falling ill.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who himself was admitted to intensive care after contracting coronavirus during the first wave of UK infections in spring, expressed his best wishes to Donald and Melania Trump, saying he was “sure that they will both stage a very strong recovery”.
Meanwhile in the UK, Johnson defended the current raft of local lockdowns and pleaded for patience in the struggle against the disease.
Liverpool, Warrington, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough became the latest regions to enter local lockdowns on Saturday, with it now illegal for households to mix indoors in those areas.
More than a third of the UK population is living under heightened restrictions, and Johnson has faced a revolt on his backbenches in recent days over the way ministers have introduced such local lockdowns without giving MPs a say.
In an interview with BBC North East and Cumbria on the eve of the “virtual” Tory conference, Johnson appeared to blame the public for the current surge in cases.
He said the summer had brought with it a “sort of fraying of people’s discipline and attention” to the social distancing rules.
His comments come as yet more university students tested positive, with Northumbria University, based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, saying that as of Friday it was aware of 770 cases, 78 of whom are symptomatic.
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