WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has “continued to improve” as he is treated for Covid-19 at a military hospital near Washington, his doctors said on Sunday, adding that he could be discharged as early as Monday.

In a briefing outside Walter Reed medical centre, they said Trump’s oxygen levels had briefly dropped twice in recent days and that he is being treated with steroids, while continuing to provide an upbeat assessment of the 74-year-old’s health and outlook.

“The president has continued to improve,” said his White House physician, Sean Conley. “As with any illness, there are frequent ups and downs over the course.”

Conley said the president was flown to Walter Reed on Friday after a “rapid progression” of his illness, with his oxygen levels dropping worryingly low.

He received supplementary oxygen at the White House, where he had been running a high fever, before being admitted.

Brian Garibaldi, another of Trump’s doctors, said the president had been “up and around” and was feeling well.

“Our plan for today is to have him eat and drink, be up out of bed as much as possible, to be mobile,” Garibaldi said.

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

The medical updates have come regularly but questions remain over how bad his fever became, when he last tested negative, the circumstances of his infection — and the longer-term prognosis.

With a tough election campaign against Democratic rival Joe Biden in its final month, Trump and his advisers have done their best to project a sense of continuity.

The president has resumed making calls and tweeting from hospital. He posted a video on Saturday from the business suite in the hospital, saying he was improving and would be “back soon”.

On Sunday, his deputy campaign manager Jason Miller told ABC he had spoken to Trump for a half-hour on Saturday and that the president was “cracking jokes”.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2020