Trump Covid symptom-free for 24 hours: doctor

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has been free of Covid-19 symptoms for 24 hours and has not had a fever in four days, his doctor said Wednesday.

"The president this morning says 'I feel great,'" doctor Sean Conley said in a brief update.

Trump tested positive last week and was hospitalized at the Walter Reed military medical center late Friday evening, returning to the White House on Monday evening.

"His physical exam and vital signs, including oxygen saturation and respiratory rate, all remain stable and in normal range," the doctor's statement said.

"He's now been fever-free for more than four days, symptom-free for over 24 hours, and has not needed nor received any supplemental oxygen since initial hospitalization."

In an apparent attempt to provide greater clarity over how the disease has progressed, the statement also detailed that Covid antibodies were found in Trump's blood tests on Monday, but not last Thursday.

He announced he was positive in the early hours of Friday.

"Knowing the antibody level in the acute phase of illness before he's still not even out of contagiousness period, it doesn't give me a whole lot of information," Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease doctor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told AFP.

"We still need to watch him for the next couple of days to see how he does. He appears to be on a good trajectory from everything we've seen so far."

Trump has vowed to return to campaigning shortly and to participate in the second presidential debate against opponent Joe Biden in Miami on October 15.

The president is confronted by dire polling numbers ahead of the November 3 election, which comes as the economy struggles to recover from Covid shutdowns that have left countless families and businesses struggling.

Latest polls forecast a clear victory for Biden, with CNN giving the Democrat a national advantage of 57 percent to 41 percent among likely voters, and women voters going 66 to 32 percent in his favor.