By Carl O’Donnell
(Reuters) – U.S. President Trump revealed on Friday, Oct. 2 that he had been diagnosed with COVID-19. The following is a timeline of his infection and treatment:
Sept. 26: Trump hosts an event in the White House Rose Garden to announce his nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Masks and social distancing are not enforced and multiple attendees later test positive for the coronavirus, the New York Times reported. It is unclear if the president was infected at the event or elsewhere.
Sept. 29: Trump debates Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in Cleveland. Biden since tests negative. Oct. 1: Trump attends an indoor fundraiser at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey in the afternoon. In the evening, he says he is entering quarantine after Hope Hicks, a White House adviser who works closely with the president, reveals she has tested positive for COVID-19. Trump tells Fox News he is awaiting his own test results.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump tested positive on Oct. 1 on a same-day COVID-19 test used as a screening tool by the White House but did not immediately disclose the result. The White House did not immediately respond to the Journal’s request for comment.
Oct. 2: Trump announces on Twitter in the early hours that he and his wife, Melania, have both tested positive for COVID-19. Later that day he is moved to Walter Reed military hospital in Bethseda, Maryland. He receives an infusion of medicines, including an experimental antibody drug developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Oct. 3: Trump’s doctor says the president is making good progress and receives the first dose of a five-day course of remdesivir, an antiviral drug made by Gilead Sciences Inc, authorized by U.S. regulators to treat COVID-19. He also starts receiving a steroid called dexamethasone after experiencing “transient low oxygen levels,” his doctors say during a news conference the following day.
Oct. 4: Trump temporarily leaves the hospital in a motorcade to wave at supporters, a move criticized by some for putting Secret Service agents driving his vehicle at risk.
Oct. 5: Trump returns to the White House after a three-night hospital stay. He tells Americans “to get out there” and not fear COVID-19 and removes his white surgical mask to pose for pictures.
Oct. 7: Trump’s physician says he has been symptom free for 24 hours, with a physical examination and his vital signs showing his condition remains stable.
Oct. 8: Trump says he is no longer contagious, without offering medical evidence. He says is still on steroids but has stopped taking “most therapeutics.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends patients wait 10 days after symptoms arise before they assume they are not contagious or that they obtain two negative DNA-detecting PCR tests 24 hours apart to prove negativity.
Oct 9: A White House spokeswoman says Trump will be tested for COVID-19 and will not go out in public if it is determined he can still spread the virus.
(Reporting by Carl O’Donnell in New York; additional reporting by Deena Beasley, editing by Peter Henderson, Rosalba O’Brien and Grant McCool)
