Donald Trump's condition improving, may be discharged on Monday, says Doctors

US President Donald Trump, who is suffering from coronavirus, was provided supplemental oxygen twice and also given dexamethasone on Thursday and Friday, said doctors treating him. Trump, who is admitted at a military hospital, could return to the White House as early as Monday, where his treatment would continue, they added.

Donald Trump's condition is improving as well, said the doctors a day after a series of contradictory messages from the White House caused widespread confusion about Trump’s condition.

Dexamethasone is shown in studies to improve survival for patients hospitalized with critical Covid-19 who need extra oxygen. But it should not be given in mild cases since it can limit the body’s own ability to combat the virus, according to guidelines from the Infectious Disease Society of America.

“The fact of the matter is that he’s doing really well,” Dr. Sean P. Conley told reporters at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where Trump has been receiving treatment since Friday.

Doctors said Trump has not run a fever since Friday and that his liver and kidney function remained normal after the second dose in a five-day course of Remdesivir, an intravenous antiviral drug sold by Gilead Sciences Inc GILD.O that has been shown to shorten hospital stays.

Dr Brian Garibaldi said Trump was given dexamethasone in response to “transient low oxygen levels.”

“He received his



first dose of that yesterday and our plan is to continue that for the time being,” Garibaldi said.

Trump is also being given an experimental treatment, Regeneron's REGN.O REGN-COV2, as well as zinc, Vitamin D, famotidine, melatonin and aspirin, his doctors have said.

Trump released a four-minute video on Saturday in which he said the “real test” of his condition will come over the next few days.

“Over the next period of a few days, I guess that’s the real test, so we’ll be seeing what happens over those next couple of days,” Trump said into the camera, looking tired and wearing a jacket and open-necked shirt.

Trump’s illness has upended the campaign ahead of the November presidential election and cast a spotlight on the president’s handling of the pandemic. The Republican president is trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden in opinion polls.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Sunday found that Biden had opened a 10 point lead over Trump nationally, slightly wider than it has been for the past two months. Some 65% of Americans said Trump likely would not have been infected had he taken the virus more seriously -- a view that half of registered Republicans polled supported. Some 55% said they did not believe Trump had been telling the truth about the virus.

Trump has repeatedly played down the threat of the pandemic, even as it has killed more than 208,000 Americans and hammered the U.S. economy.