A US Marine stands guard outside the West Wing, indicating that US President Donald Trump is in the Oval Office, at the White House in Washington, DC, October 7, 2020. President Donald Trump has been free of Covid-19 symptoms for 24 hours and has not had a fever in four days, his doctor said October 7, 2020. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump was on Wednesday back at work in the Oval Office just six days after testing Covid-19 positive, despite warnings that his return could put others at risk.
The behavior of the president — who has faced fierce criticism for his handling of the outbreak — is under scrutiny as the number of positive cases climbs among people working at the White House.
After contradictory statements whether the president was back at work on Tuesday, a senior administration official told AFP that Trump was present Wednesday with an “extremely limited” number of staff in his office.
Trump, who was hospitalized Friday with the virus that has killed over 210,000 in the US, arrived by an outside door to avoid passing through the crowded corridors of his residence, the official said.
“Was just briefed on Hurricane Delta,” the president tweeted, eager to project his return as a personal triumph over the disease as he trails badly in polls against Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
Trump’s illness, like his dismissive stance on the virus, has fueled multiple controversies, including his made-for-television exit from the hospital on Monday.
Just after stepping off a helicopter at the White House, he climbed the stairs of his residence and pulled off his face mask — a tool against the virus that he has frequently downplayed.
“Don’t let (Covid-19) dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it,” he urged Americans in his homecoming speech, despite the US having the largest total number of coronavirus infections and deaths in the world.
‘Wacko for years’
By Wednesday, doctors reported the president had been free of Covid-19 symptoms for 24 hours and has not had a fever in four days.
“The president this morning says ‘I feel great,'” doctor Sean Conley said in a brief update.
In an apparent attempt to provide greater clarity over how the disease has progressed, the update also detailed that Covid antibodies were found in Trump’s blood tests on Monday.
Florian Krammer, professor at Icahn School of Medicine in New York, told AFP those results don’t mean much at this stage.
“It could well be that the majority of what is detected came from the transfusion,” he said referring to the experimental antibody treatment Trump got Friday.
Trump has vowed to return to campaigning shortly and to participate in the second presidential debate against Biden in Miami on October 15.
As Trump seeks to revive his reelection campaign in the face of weak polling data just four weeks away from the November 3 election, he labeled Biden “a wacko.”
Latest polls forecast a clear victory for Biden, with CNN giving the Democrat a national advantage of 57 percent to 41 percent among likely voters, and women voters going 66 to 32 percent in his favor.
“He’s been a wacko for years, and everyone knows it,” Trump tweeted. “Notice how all of the bad things, like his very low IQ, are no longer reported? Fake News!”
Biden traded blows with Trump in last week’s chaotic debate, but the former vice president has also appealed to a broad-based yearning for calm.