Trump moved to military hospital after COVID-19 diagnosis

By Adekunle Badmus

U.S. President, Donald Trump has been moved to a military hospital for treatment on Friday.

The development came after he and the First Lady were diagnosed with COVID-19 as his administration and election campaign scrambled to adjust to an extraordinary twist in his turbulent presidency.

Roughly 17 hours after he announced that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, Trump walked slowly from the White House to a waiting helicopter to be taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He wore a mask and did not speak to reporters.

Trump will stay in a special suite in the hospital for the next few days as a precautionary measure, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said.

“Out of an abundance of caution, and at the recommendation of his Physician and medical experts, the President will be working from the presidential offices at Walter Reed for the next few days,” she said in a statement.

Trump, 74, has a mild fever, according to a source familiar with the matter. White House doctor Sean P. Conley said he is being treated with an experimental drug cocktail and is “fatigued but in good spirits.”

It was the latest recent setback for the Republican president, who is trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden in opinion polls ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election.

Trump, who has played down the threat of the coronavirus pandemic from the outset, wrote on Twitter earlier on Friday that he and his wife Melania were going into quarantine after testing positive for the virus, which has killed more than 200,000 Americans and severely damaged the U.S. economy.

An active Twitter user, Trump has not posted any messages since then.