Donald Trump admitted to military hospital, limits campaigning in final month

NEW YORK: US President Donald Trump has been admitted to the nation's premier military hospital in Washington for several days after testing positive for COVID-19, limiting his campaigning in the crucial month before the November 3 presidential election.

His doctor Sean Conley said on Friday night that he had recommended moving Trump to the Walter Reed Military Medical Centre after consulting with specialists from there and the Johns Hopkins University.

The Walter Reed hospital, which has among the best equipment and experts is usually the first stop for military personnel wounded in wars abroad.

Trump, whose campaign style is whipping up crowds to frenzy, will feel trapped for several days during the countdown to the election in a hospital by a virus he had underrated.

"The President will be working from the presidential offices at Walter Reed (hospital) for the next few days," his spokesperson KayleighMcEnany said on Friday evening.

Conley said that Trump was "doing well" and "is not requiring supplemental oxygen".

Trump has started Remdesivir therapy in consultation with specialists and had taken the first dose, Conley said.

Remdesivir is an anti-viral medication originally developed to fight the Ebola virus but is being tried against COVID-19.

The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has given it an emergency use authorisation "for the treatment of suspected or laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in adults and children hospitalised with severe disease", according to the agency's website.

The drug developed by Gilead Sciences is given intravenously.

Earlier on Friday, Conley had said that Trump was being treated with another experimental medication, a "polyclonal antibody cocktail" produced by the biotech company, Regeneron, that has not yet been approved by the FDA as a treatment for Covid-19.

The short memo from his doctor did not say if the Regerneron medication was still being used and if not a reason for the discontinuation.

Regeneron had reported on Tuesday that its medication had shown positive results in 275 patients during trials.

Trump has been advocating the use of medicines not fully approved by the FDA for treating COVID-19.

He also received other medicines including aspirin, zinc, a natural hormone melatonin, vitamin D and the antacid famotidine, the doctor said.

It did not appear that he received hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), which he had taken as a preventive around the time his valet became infected in May and got India to send a huge consignment for use as a cure or prophylactic.

Meanwhile in a video recorded of him standing up and speaking informally at the White House, Trump said: "I'm going to Walter Reed Hospital. I think I'm doing very well, but we're going to make sure that things work out. The First Lady is doing very well."

Trump's wife, Melania, who also tested positive for the coronavirus is staying on at the White House.

The 74-year-old President, who is also overweight at 124 kg, has three high-risk factors for the coronavirus, with which he was diagnosed on Thursday. (IANS)

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