Less than 24hours after President Donald Trump announced his Covid-19 diagnosis, he has been taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center early Friday after showing mild symptoms of the virus.
The President’s hospitalization is said to be a “precautionary measure” and he is expected to remain at the hospital for several days but would continue his presidential duties. According to his doctor, the president is taking the anti-viral drug Remdesivir.
Following Trump’s diagnosis, several of his aides and allies have also confirmed testing positive for the virus.
Former White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway, the president of the University of Notre Dame, and at least three Republican lawmakers have announced they had tested positive and were isolating.
Also testing positive is Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien and, Campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh.
Many White House and senior administration officials are already undergoing tests, but the full scale of the outbreak around the president may not be known for some time as it can take days for an infection to be detectable by a test.
Trump had tried to convince the American public that the worst of the pandemic is past, and he has consistently played down concerns about being personally vulnerable.
He has mostly refused to abide by basic public health guidelines including those issued by his own administration such as wearing face coverings in public and practicing social distancing.
Until he tested positive, he continued to hold campaign rallies that drew thousands of often maskless supporters.
The President had mocked political opponent Joe Biden at Tuesday night’s presidential debate, saying “I don’t wear masks like him,” “Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from me, and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen,” Trump said.
