Donald Trump leaves hospital after 3 days of Covid-19 treatment; infections among White House aides mount
- President took off his mask and flashed a double thumbs-up. He then walked into the White House without putting his mask back on
- Joe Biden castigated Trump for saying Americans should not be afraid of Covid-19
US President Donald Trump left hospital to return to the White House on Monday evening after spending the weekend undergoing aggressive treatment for Covid-19, even as the number of known cases at the White House continued to climb.
Wearing a surgical mask, suit and tie, Trump walked out of the Walter Reed National Medical Center around 6.30pm, pumping his fist and giving a thumbs-up to onlookers. He ignored shouted questions from the press about whether he considered himself a “superspreader”.
Minutes prior, he tweeted that he planned to return to the campaign trail “soon”. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that infected individuals should remain in isolation for ten full days after first exhibiting symptoms.
Trump’s departure from the military hospital in Bethesda, Maryland came hours after his own press secretary Kayleigh McEnany announced that she had tested positive for the coronavirus and as news of other infections among White House aides emerged.
“I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good!,” Trump had tweeted earlier in the afternoon ahead of a press briefing from his medical team. “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life.”
In a video posted after that on Twitter, Trump urged Americans to “get out there, be careful, we have the best medicines in the world ... the vaccines are coming momentarily”. The 74-year-old president also boasted about feeling “better than I did 20 years ago”.