'I feel great': Trump doctor's Covid update sparks more questions
US President Donald Trump has been free of Covid-19 symptoms for 24 hours and has not had a fever in four days, his doctor has revealed.
"The president this morning says 'I feel great'," doctor Sean Conley said in a brief update on Wednesday (local time).
Mr Trump tested positive last week and was hospitalised at the Walter Reed military medical centre late Friday evening, returning to the White House on Monday evening.
"His physical exam and vital signs, including oxygen saturation and respiratory rate, all remain stable and in normal range," the doctor's statement said.
"He's now been fever-free for more than four days, symptom-free for over 24 hours, and has not needed nor received any supplemental oxygen since initial hospitalisation."
In an apparent attempt to provide greater clarity over how the disease has progressed, the statement also detailed Covid antibodies were found in Mr Trump's blood tests on Monday, but not last Thursday.
The update indicates Mr Trump’s body is developing an immunity to the virus, while providing a window of when he may have contracted the virus.
Covid-19 antibodies are normally developed several days to a few weeks after infection.
He announced he was positive in the early hours of Friday, with the virus feared to have been spreading through his administration before Mr Trump confirmed his infection.
WH Physician Sean Conley says Pres Trump “reports no symptoms” on the day after his return to the WH from 72 hours at Walter Reed. In a brief statement, Dr Conley reports the President’s oxygen saturation level is 95-97%. “Overall, he continues to do extremely well,” says Conley. pic.twitter.com/sWquH8dc4i
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) October 6, 2020
Full picture still not known, expert says
"Knowing the antibody level in the acute phase of illness before he's still not even out of contagiousness period, it doesn't give me a whole lot of information," Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease doctor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told AFP.
"We still need to watch him for the next couple of days to see how he does. He appears to be on a good trajectory from everything we've seen so far."
The update is the latest from Mr Trump’s medical team who have caused confusion over his condition due to inconsistent reports.
Mr Trump has vowed to return to campaigning shortly and to participate in the second presidential debate against opponent Joe Biden in Miami on October 15.
The president is confronted by dire polling numbers ahead of the November 3 election, which comes as the economy struggles to recover from Covid shutdowns that have left countless families and businesses struggling.
Latest polls forecast a clear victory for Biden, with CNN giving the Democrat a national advantage of 57 per cent to 41 per cent among likely voters, and women voters going 66 to 32 per cent in his favour.
On Tuesday, Mr Trump was censored on Twitter after wrongfully claiming seasonal flu was deadlier than Covid-19.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates influenza has resulted in far fewer yearly deaths than Mr Trump said — between 12,000 and 61,000 annually since 2010.
The coronavirus death toll in the US exceeds the last five annual flu seasons combined, CDC data shows.
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