Trump was hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Friday after contracting the coronavirus, recording a fever and receiving supplemental oxygen. Doctors said the president has since been given three different types of therapeutic drugs — including one typically used in more serious cases.
Trump left the hospital four days after his arrival for treatment for Covid-19. Minnesota officials are attempting to contact trace people who attended Trump campaign events there last week. Trump’s campaign said he plans to be ready to debate challenger Joe Biden.
Public health experts had hoped that President Trump, chastened by his own infection with the coronavirus and the cases that have erupted among his staff, would act decisively to persuade his supporters that wearing masks and social distancing were essential to protecting themselves and their loved ones.
But instead, tweeting on Monday from the military hospital where he has been receiving state-of-the-art treatment for Covid-19, the president yet again downplayed the deadly threat of the virus.
“Don’t be afraid of Covid,” he wrote. “Don’t let it dominate your life.” When he arrived at the White House a few hours later, Mr. Trump removed his mask before joining several masked people inside. The president was probably still contagious, as many patients can pass on the virus for up to 10 days after symptoms begin.
Yet upon his return from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Trump showed little eagerness to embrace those measures. After descending from presidential helicopter, he walked up the South Portico stairs to the White House balcony, where he removed his mask, flashed thumbs-up with both hands and saluted for several seconds.
Presicent Trump has often ignored the recommendations of public health experts, repeatedly mocking people for wearing masks, for example.
“I don’t wear masks like him,” he said of the Democratic presidential candidate, Joseph R. Biden Jr., at a debate last week. “Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from them, and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.”
