WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump returned to the White House on Monday after a three-night hospital stay to be treated for the coronavirus and removed his white surgical mask to pose for pictures.
Trump wore a mask as he left the helicopter that flew him back from a military hospital outside Washington and climbed the stairs of the White House, where he removed it and posed for pictures, waving, saluting and giving thumbs-up signs.
He then turned to walk into the White House with his mask still in his pocket. The president was admitted to the Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday after being diagnosed with the novel coronavirus.
Trump has repeatedly flouted social-distancing guidelines imposed to curb the spread of the virus. He also mocked Democrat Joe Biden in the last presidential debate for wearing a mask at events. Biden has stressed on the seriousness of the disease and emphasised the importance of wearing masks.
Trump has not had a fever in more than 72 hours and his oxygen levels are normal, his medical team told reporters at the hospital where he was treated. The doctors declined to discuss any effect the disease could have on the president’s lungs or disclose when Trump last tested negative for the coronavirus.
The team added that the president had received supplemental oxygen twice in recent days. “He may not entirely be out of the woods yet,” said White House physician Dr Sean P. Conley. He said the medical team believed Trump was ready to leave the hospital and would have world-class medical care around the clock at the White House.
He said doctors were in “uncharted territory” because Trump had received certain therapies so early in the course of the illness. The severity of Trump’s illness has been the subject of intense speculation, with some medical experts noting that, as an overweight, elderly man, he was in more likely to develop severe complications from the disease.
Doctors also have been treating him with a steroid, dexamethasone, that is normally used only in the most severe cases. Trump is still undergoing a five-day course of an intravenous antiviral drug, remdesivir, and will have to isolate for a period of time.
Biden, who has tested negative for the disease several times since last Tuesday’s presidential debate, said he was willing to participate in the next one on 15th October in Miami if health experts deemed it safe. Trump intends to take part in the debate as well.
