BETHESDA, Md. – President Trump’s doctor released a Saturday evening health update saying that the president was “not yet out of the woods" but that “the team remains cautiously optimistic."
Trump sent out his own update from Ward 71, the entire floor where he’s staying at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, 9 rooms, including the very conference room where he taped the message around 7 p.m. Saturday.
[RELATED: The Latest: Trump and Coronavirus]
Explaining his move to Walter Reed hospital, he said that while he could have stayed locked in the White House, as president he couldn’t be “locked up in a room upstairs.”
(Watch the complete video below)
Navy Commander Dr. Sean Conley, the President’s doctor, released a Saturday evening memorandum regarding the president’s treatment, which read:
“President Trump continues to do well, having made substantial progress since diagnosis. This evening he completed his second dose of Remdesivir without complication. He remains fever free and off supplemental oxygen . . . "
Conley continued by writing: “While not yet out of the woods, the team remains cautiously optimistic. The plan for tomorrow is to continue observation in between doses of Remdesivir.”
(Read the memo below)
On Saturday, Conley spoke outside of the hospital surrounded by a group of eight doctors that are a “multidisciplinary team” overseeing Trump’s care.
But at that briefing, Conley raised questions as to the timeline of when the president tested positive.
He initially suggested that Trump was 72 hours into his diagnosis of COVID-19, meaning that Trump would have known he was already positive before his Minnesota rally at Duluth International Airport on Wednesday and prior to a fundraiser Thursday at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.
Conley issued a clarification in a memo sent in the afternoon on Saturday.
(Full briefing below)
“I incorrectly used the term “seventy two hours” instead of “day three”… the president was first diagnosed with COVID-19 on the evening of Thursday, Oct. 1st...”
A senior administration official then confirming to Local 10′s Washington bureau chief that the president’s first positive test result was upon this return to the White House Thursday and after his return from the Bedminster event.
But sources say he has experienced some shortness of breath and has been given oxygen. His doctor, though, dodged direct questions from reporters who asked if the president had been on supplemental oxygen.
“Right now, he is not,” Conley said.
“So, he has not been on it during his COVID treatment?”
“He is not on oxygen right now,” Conley said.
The questioning continued.
“Should we read into the fact that he had been previously?”
“Yesterday and today, he was not on oxygen,” Conley said.
The president received his second dose of Remdesevir on Saturday, an emergency use anti-viral drug, and Conley was asked why Trump was also given a highly experimental antibody treatment.
“I didn’t want to hold anything back if there was any possibility that it would add value to his care,” Conley told reporters.
Meanwhile, the list of those infected, who also attended the mostly maskless presidential nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, now includes: Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, Utah Senator Mike Lee, and former advisor Kellyanne Conway.
In video and photos from the Barrett nomination in the Rose Garden, Attorney General Bill Barr was seen standing close to Conway – neither wore a mask. Barr has not tested positive for COVID-19.
Barr was seen at the White House Saturday and is not going under quarantine as a precaution.