Pompeo shortens Asia trip after Trump falls ill with COVID-19

(Washington) U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will depart for Japan on Sunday (today) but will not go to Mongolia and South Korea as originally planned, the State Department said on Saturday, after President Donald Trump was diagnosed and hospitalized due to the coronavirus.

Initially, Pompeo planned to visit all three countries between Oct. 4 and Oct 8. He is still set to leave for Tokyo on Sunday but will be returning to Washington on Oct. 6 after consultations with his Japanese counterparts and attending a wider meeting with foreign ministers of India and Australia.

Trump announced his illness in the early hours of Friday and was flown from the White House to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near Washington. In a video from the hospital on Saturday, he said he felt 'much better' but the next few days will be 'the real test' of his treatment for COVID-19.

In a speech delivered virtually earlier to the Florida Family Policy Council, Pompeo said he was in good health but that he canceled his in-person appearance at the event "out of an abundance of caution." He said he still planned to go to Asia.