United States President Donald Trump, who went to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for “a stay of a few days” Friday evening after testing positive for coronavirus, is having difficulty breathing and is very fatigued, CNN reports quoting a senior White House official.
An unnamed official told CNN there is “reason for concern” about Trump’s health and that the situation was “serious”.
Trump had announced early Friday that he and his wife, Melania, had tested positive for the virus.
He had received an experimental antibody cocktail of drugs developed by the biotech company Regeneron, according to the memo from his doctor, Sean P. Conley, before he went to Walter Reed. Trump is also taking vitamin D, zinc, melatonin, a daily aspirin and famotidine (an antacid better known as Pepcid), the memo said.
Trump, 74, had showed no visible sign of difficulty as he walked to Marine One on the White House Lawn, wearing a blue suit and tie and a mask. He did not speak to reporters clustered nearby, but gave a thumbs up.
He looked tired in a brief video message he tweeted shortly after arriving at Walter Reed. However, he said he was “doing very well” and suggested that he was visiting the hospital only as a precaution.
“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, filmed in the White House shortly before his departure for the hospital.
“The First Lady is doing very well,” he said.
According to two people close to Trump, he has a low-grade fever, nasal congestion and a cough, but staff members say he would continue working from a special suite there.
Trump was not planning to transfer his authority to Vice President Mike Pence, according to a White House spokesman, Judd Deere.
“The president is in charge,” Deere said.
But reports now say the US president’s condition seemed to be “serious” as he spent his first night in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus.
However, an aide reassured the public that there was no cause for alarm as Trump is taking the situation “very seriously”.
Trump himself tweeted late last night: “Going well, I think! Thank you to all. LOVE!!!”
While White House doctor Conley had also said the president “was doing very well”, did not need supplemental oxygen, and had received a first dose of Remdesivir, an intravenous antiviral drug sold by Gilead Sciences Inc that has been shown to shorten hospital stays.
