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| - President Donald Trump has "continued to improve" as he is treated for Covid-19 at a military hospital near Washington, his doctors said Sunday, adding that he could be discharged as early as Monday. In a briefing outside Walter Reed medical center, they said Trump's oxygen levels had briefly dropped twice and that he is being treated with steroids, while continuing to provide an upbeat assessment of the 74-year-old's health. "The president has continued to improve," said his White House physician, Sean Conley. "As with any illness, there are frequent ups and downs over the course." Conley said the president was flown to Walter Reed on Friday after a "rapid progression" of his illness, with his oxygen levels dropping worryingly low. He received supplementary oxygen at the White House, where he had been running a high fever, before being admitted. Brian Garibaldi, another of Trump's doctors, said the president could be discharged "as early as tomorrow to the White House where he can continue his treatment course." While ordinary members of the public would only be sent home after recovering, Trump can take full advantage of the extensive White House medical facilities, which can match those in a hospital in many areas of treatment. Health experts have complained however that the messaging from the administration -- and particularly Trump's medical team -- has caused widespread confusion. Conley admitted Sunday that in a briefing a day earlier he'd kept from the public the fact that the president had been given extra oxygen in a bid to reflect an "upbeat attitude." Adding to the confusion, Conley gave a rosy account of Trump's progress Saturday only for White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to tell reporters immediately that Trump's condition had been "very concerning" and that he was "still not on a clear path to a full recovery." Conley's latest briefing was not as harshly criticized but he was still called out for being evasive about Trump's lung scans, saying only that there were "some expected findings" that weren't of great concern. And while the medical updates have come regularly, questions remain over the drugs Trump has been given and their implications, how bad his fever became, when he last tested negative and whether there is any lung damage. "You don't start dexamethasone, Remdesivir and (give) an experimental antibody cocktail to the President in the setting of low oxygen 'dips' unless there's COVID Pneumonia," tweeted Vin Gupta, of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. "What did his chest imaging show? The American people deserve basic information on their President." With a tough election campaign against Democratic rival Joe Biden in its final month, Trump and his advisors have done their best to project a sense of continuity. The president has resumed making calls and tweeting from hospital. "I really appreciate all of the fans and supporters outside of the hospital," he posted Sunday afternoon of a burgeoning crowd that has gathered to wave placards and banners. "The fact is, they really love our Country and are seeing how we are MAKING IT GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE!" Earlier, Trump's deputy campaign manager Jason Miller had told ABC he had spoken to Trump for a half-hour Saturday and that the president was "cracking jokes." National security advisor Robert O'Brien told CBS any discussion of a potential temporary transfer of power to Vice President Mike Pence was "not something that's on the table" for now. Compounding frustration over the medical messaging, controversy has been mounting over the progression of Trump's illness -- and whether he might have exposed numerous others to Covid-19 even after a close aide tested positive. A timeline provided by Trump's advisors and doctors suggested he met more than 30 donors on Thursday in Bedminster, New Jersey even after learning that Hope Hicks had Covid-19 -- and just hours before he announced his own positive test. There were more than 200 people at the fundraiser and a contact-tracing operation underway in New Jersey is looking at potentially thousands of people who may have been exposed. All this came in a week when a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll -- taken in the two days after a bruising presidential debate with Biden but before news emerged of Trump's illness -- gave Biden a significant a 53-39 percent lead among registered voters. Trump was said to have turned off voters in part by mocking Biden's mask-wearing during their debate Tuesday, even as Trump family members in the audience violated rules requiring masks. "You can't just say we need to do something but we're going to let the virus run free. Now it has even run free in the White House," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CBS. As well as Trump and Hicks, numerous White House insiders and at least three Republican senators have contracted Covid-19, along with First Lady Melania Trump, who has not experienced severe symptoms. Public health experts have expressed alarm at the "White House cluster," which has been linked to the September 26 Rose Garden celebration of conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court. bkk/ft/jm
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