President Trump may not be out of the woods but exceeded hospital discharge criteria, says White House Physician
Oct 05, 2020
Washington DC [USA], October 6 : White House physician Dr Sean Conley said that US President Donald Trump is not entirely 'out of the woods yet' but he has improved enough to return to the White House on Monday.
Addressing a press conference, Dr Conley said: "Over the past 24 hours, the president has continued to improve. He has met or exceeded all the standard hospital discharge criteria. He will receive another dose of Remdesivir, and then we plan to get him home. Its been more than 72 hours since his last fever."
"Though he may not be entirely out of the woods yet, our team and I agree that all our evaluations, most importantly his clinical status, support the President's safe return home, where he will be surrounded by world-class medical care 24/7," he added.
On being asked about how safe it was for Trump to return to the White House, owing to the number of COVID-19 cases there, Dr Conley mentioned that he was surrounded by medical and security staff for days wearing full Protective Personal Equipment (PPE).
"We worked with our infectious diseases experts to make some recommendations for how to keep everything safe down at the White House for the president and everyone around him. We are looking to where he can carry out his duties, office space, and I will just say that it is in line with everything we have been doing for the last several days," he said to reporters.
When asked about why Trump was given dexamethasone treatment, Dr Conley said: "We talked yesterday about the drops in his oxygen, and we discussed that as a team and elected to start it early in case that persisted or worsened. The potential risks and side effects were discussed."
Earlier, Trump announced on Twitter that he will be leaving the Walter Reed Medical Center at 6:30 PM (local time), and urged people to not be afraid of the virus.
"I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! Don't be afraid of Covid. Don't let it dominate your life," tweeted the US President.
On Thursday (local time), Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were tested positive for coronavirus.
