New cases among Trump allies emerge as US President receives care at military hospital

WASHINGTON (AP) — A feverish and fatigued President Donald Trump is spending the weekend at a military hospital for treatment of COVID-19, as new cases continue to emerge among some of the president’s top advisers and allies.

Trump’s physician, Navy Commander Dr. Sean Conley, is set to update the nation on his condition from the hospital Saturday morning.

The decision to have Conley brief reporters marks a change in strategy by the White House, which has so far been less than transparent about the virus’s spread.

It was a reporter for Bloomberg News , not the White House  that broke news that a close aide to Trump had been infected.

And aides so far have declined to share basic health information about the president, including a full accounting of his symptoms, what tests he’s undertaken and the results.

In a memo released shortly before midnight, Conley did report that Trump had been treated at the hospital with remdesivir, an antiviral medication, after taking another experimental drug at the White House.

He added that Trump is “doing very well” and is “not requiring any supplemental oxygen.”

The White House said Trump was expected to stay at the hospital for “a few days” out of an abundance of caution and that he would continue to work from the hospital’s presidential suite, which is equipped to allow him to keep up his official duties.

In addition to accessibility to tests and equipment, the decision was made, at least in part, with the understanding that moving him later, if he took a turn for the worse, could send a worrying signal.

As the White House works to piece together the flurry of new infections, attention is focused in particular on last Saturday’s White House event introducing Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.

That day, Trump gathered more than 150 people in the Rose Garden.

People mingled, hugged and shook hands overwhelmingly without masks. 

Trump walked out of the White House on Friday evening wearing a mask and gave a thumbs-up to reporters but did not speak before boarding Marine One.

In a video taped before leaving for Walter Reed, Trump said, “I think I’m doing very well, but we’re going to make sure that things work out.”

“Going welI, I think! Thank you to all. LOVE!!!” he wrote in his first tweet from the hospital Friday night.

Trump first revealed that he had tested positive in a tweet about 1 a.m. Friday, hours after he returned from a Thursday afternoon political fundraiser.

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