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

WASHINGTON: Doctors treating President Donald Trump for COVID-19 are monitoring the condition of his lungs after he received supplemental oxygen, they told reporters on Sunday (Oct 4), hours before Trump surprised supporters outside the hospital by riding past in a motorcade.

Trump, 74, wore a mask as he waved from the back seat of a black SUV that crawled in a caravan of vehicles in front of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, while supporters waving Trump 2020 flags chanted "USA! USA!"

In a video posted on Twitter, Trump said he planned "a little surprise" for his fans gathered outside.

Trump has taken two doses of a five-day course of the intravenous antiviral drug Remdesivir, his doctors said at a briefing on Sunday morning, as well as the steroid dexamethasone, which is used in severe cases.

Dr Sean P Conley acknowledged that Trump's blood oxygen levels had dropped in prior days and that he had run a high fever on Friday morning, admitting that the president's condition had been worse than previously disclosed. Conley said Trump was improving on Sunday.