Trump plans to return to campaign trail with Florida rally less than 10 days after testing positive for coronavirus

Memo from Dr Sean Conley says US president has responded ‘extremely well’ to coronavirus treatment

Trump got so sick from the virus that he was hospitalised at Walter Reed Medical Centre and had to be put on supplemental oxygen several times

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US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Jacksonville, Florida, in September. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:55am, 9 Oct 2020Updated: 10:22am, 9 Oct 2020

US President Donald Trump is on track to get the all clear from his doctor to resume “public engagements” on Saturday – even though that’d be less than two weeks since he was first diagnosed with Covid-19.

Stuck in quarantine at the White House this week, Trump has been itching to get back on the campaign trail, with Joe Biden trouncing him in nearly all polls as the November 3 election looms less than four weeks away.

Trump on Thursday said he was doing “really good” and that he might try to do a rally on Saturday night, probably in Florida. In an interview with Fox News, Trump also said he would likely take a Covid-19 test on Friday.

“I think I’m going to try doing a rally on Saturday night if we have enough time to put it together, but we want to do a rally probably in Florida on Saturday night,” he told Sean Hannity.

Dr Sean Conley, the White House physician, said in a memo late on Thursday that Trump has “responded extremely well” to his treatment since first testing positive for the virus late in the evening of October 1.

“Saturday will be day 10 since Thursday’s diagnosis, and based on the trajectory of advanced diagnostics the team has been conducting, I fully anticipate the president’s safe return to public engagements at that time,” Conley wrote in the memo.

However, Conley, who has fumbled the timeline of Trump’s illness several times before, appeared to use fuzzy math in making that determination.

Since the White House says Trump first tested positive late at night on October 1, this Saturday would be day nine of his diagnosis – not day 10. But a White House official insisted otherwise.