White House physician Sean Conley answers questions surrounded by other doctors, during an update on the condition of US President Donald Trump, on October 4, 2020, at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump experienced two drops in his oxygen levels over the course of his coronavirus illness but his condition has continued to improve, Trump’s physician, Dr. Sean Conley, said on Sunday.
“The president has continued to improve,” Conley told reporters outside the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. “As with any illness, there are frequent ups and downs over the course.”
Conley said Trump was doing well Thursday night into Friday morning and was only experiencing mild symptoms with his blood oxygen levels in the high 90s.
Conley said that by late Friday morning the president was running a high fever and his oxygen saturation levels had dipped below 94%.
“Given these developments, I was concerned for possible rapid progression of the illness,” Conley said.
Trump was then given supplemental oxygen and “after about a minute” his levels were back above 95%. The president was on supplemental oxygen for about an hour Friday, Conley said.
On Saturday, Trump’s oxygen saturation dipped to about 93%, the doctor said. It’s unclear if he was given oxygen on Saturday. The doctors monitored Trump and his oxygen levels went back up. The president’s blood oxygen level is currently at 98%, Conley said.
Conley also said that the president has been administered dexamethasone, a steroid that treats inflammation in Covid-19 patients and has been shown to help patients with severe or critical Covid-19. Trump also completed a second dose of remdesivir on Saturday.
Still, doctors said Trump could be discharged as early as Monday to continue his treatment at the White House. The president has entered his third day in the hospital on Sunday after contracting the virus last week.
The Sunday briefing comes a day after a presentation from the doctors that sowed confusion and concern over the president’s condition and raised new questions about when it was known that Trump was ill.
Trump’s team of doctors acknowledged on Sunday that they gave an overly positive description of the president’s condition on Saturday.
“I didn’t want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction, and in doing so, you know, it came off that we were trying to hide something, which wasn’t necessarily true,” Conley said.
Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis was announced just before 1 a.m. EST on Friday. It’s unclear when the president was infected with the virus.
The president released a video on Saturday evening saying he was starting to feel good and would be back soon, though he acknowledged the next few days will be the “real test” during ongoing treatment.
White House physician Sean Conley answers questions surrounded by other doctors, during an update on the condition of US President Donald Trump, on October 4, 2020, at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images
