Doctors monitoring Trump's lungs, giving steroid to fight COVID-19

Dexamethasone steroid treatment

Doctors said the president had a high fever on Friday morning but had not run a fever since Friday.

Dr. Brian Garibaldi said Trump was given the steroid dexamethasone in response to “transient low oxygen levels.”

“He received his first dose of that yesterday and our plan is to continue that for the time being,” Garibaldi said.

Dexamethasone is shown in studies to improve survival for patients hospitalized with severe or critical COVID-19 who need extra oxygen. But it should not be given in mild cases since it can limit the body’s own ability to combat the virus, according to guidelines from the Infectious Disease Society of America.

Trump is also being given an experimental treatment, Regeneron’s REGN-COV2, as well as zinc, Vitamin D, famotidine, melatonin and aspirin, his doctors have said.

“Our plan for today is to have him eat and drink, be up out of bed as much as possible, to be mobile,” Garibaldi said.

Trump released a four-minute video on Saturday in which he said the “real test” of his condition will come over the next few days.

“Over the next period of a few days, I guess that’s the real test, so we’ll be seeing what happens over those next couple of days,” Trump said into the camera, looking tired and wearing a jacket and open-necked shirt.

He tweeted thanks to his supporters on Sunday morning and afternoon.

“I really appreciate all of the fans and supporters outside of the hospital,” Trump tweeted Sunday afternoon.

Differing assessments of Trump’s health from administration officials on Saturday left it unclear how ill the president had become since he tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday night.