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Law360 (October 2, 2020, 1:19 AM EDT ) President Donald Trump has tested positive for COVID-19, the White House said early Friday, a jarring diagnosis for the nation's 74-year-old leader.
President Donald Trump, speaking at the White House last week, announced early Friday that he and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for COVID-19. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The White House early Friday released a memo from the president's physician, Sean Conley, that said he had "received confirmation that both President Trump and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus."
On Friday afternoon, the White House announced that Trump was being sent to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
"President Trump remains in good spirts, has mild symptoms and has been working throughout the day. Out of an abundance of caution, and at the recommendation of his physician and medical experts, the president will be working from the presidential offices at Walter Reed for the next few days," Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement.
In a separate memo released Friday afternoon, Conley wrote that the president had received a dose of an experimental antibody treatment produced by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. The memo described the dose as a "precautionary measure."
Regeneron on Tuesday reported that its treatment — a combination of two biologic ingredients known as monoclonal antibodies — "reduced viral load and the time to alleviate symptoms in non-hospitalized patients with COVID-19."
Conley's memo also said that the president has been taking zinc, vitamin D, melatonin, a daily aspirin and the heartburn drug famotidine, which is sold under the brand name Pepcid. The memo made no mention of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which Trump has long touted as an effective treatment for COVID-19 despite multiple clinical trials failing to find any significant benefit.
In a short video posted to Twitter early Friday evening, the president noted that he was going to Walter Reed and said, "I think I'm doing very well, but we're going to make sure that things work out. The first lady is doing very well."
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2020
Trump had posted overnight on Friday about the test results, tweeting that he and his wife "will get through this TOGETHER!"
Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2020
It was not immediately clear how Trump may have contracted the virus, which has killed more than 207,000 Americans, the majority of them older adults. The news came a couple hours after Trump announced that one of his top aides, Hope Hicks, had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Trump has routinely disregarded key safety recommendations, such as social distancing and mask wearing. The White House has defended the president by saying that he and his staff are tested frequently and that any individuals he meets with are screened for COVID-19.
A number of other prominent public officials have also contracted the coronavirus. They include U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro and the governors of Missouri, Oklahoma and Virginia.
The news comes as the presidential campaign enters its final weeks. Trump on Tuesday night debated his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, in a Cleveland auditorium where the two sparred verbally at a sizable distance from each other. It's not publicly known whether the president was infected at the time.
Around noon on Friday, Biden announced that he and his wife, Jill, had tested negative for the virus and that he hoped the episode "serves as a reminder: wear a mask, keep social distance, and wash your hands."
I'm happy to report that Jill and I have tested negative for COVID. Thank you to everyone for your messages of concern. I hope this serves as a reminder: wear a mask, keep social distance, and wash your hands.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 2, 2020
--Editing by Brian Baresch.
Update: This story has been updated with information on Biden testing negative as well as Trump's treatment and transfer to Walter Reed.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
