Trump undergoing Remdesivir therapy at military hospital

US President Donald Trump was shifted to a military hospital where he was given Remdesivir therapy following treatment with an experimental drug after testing positive for COVID-19, a development that upended his election campaign just weeks before the presidential polls.

Trump, 74, and his wife First Lady Melania Trump, 50, tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday.

   

“Going well, I think! Thank you to all. LOVE!!!” Trump tweeted on Saturday. Trump, who showed “mild symptoms” of COVID-19, was flown to Walter Reed Military Medical Centre in Bethesda, a Maryland suburb of Washington DC, on Friday. Trump walked from his residence to take Marine One at the South Lawns of the White House to travel to Walter Reed hospital. While the president was taken to the military hospital, the first lady stayed back at the White House.

Trump’s physician Dr Sean Conley said the president was “fatigued but in good spirits” and, in a later update, that he was doing well.

Conley said medical specialists have recommended Remdesivir therapy to treat the president’s COVID-19 infection.

“I am happy to report that the president is doing well,” Conley said in a health bulletin on Friday night, the first after the president was moved to the military hospital as a precautionary measure. “He is not requiring any supplemental oxygen, but in consultation with specialists we have elected to initiate Remdesivir therapy. He has completed his first dose and is resting comfortably,” he said.

The Trump administration had issued an emergency use authorisation for Remdesivir earlier this year after the drug showed moderate effectiveness in improving outcomes for patients who were hospitalised with the coronavirus. In a video shared on Twitter, Trump said he is “doing very well” and thanked people for their support.

“I think I’m doing very well but we’re going to make sure that things work out,” Trump said in the 18-second video that he tweeted moments after he arrived at the military hospital. “The first lady is doing very well. So, thank you very much. I appreciate it. I will never forget it,” he said.

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