Image: Kayleigh McEnany, Sept. 22, 2020. Source: Official White House Photos by Randy Florendo.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump’s health after his COVID-19 diagnosis and hospitalization, and infections of close aides and others (all times local):
11:30 a.m.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany says she has tested positive for COVID-19. This comes days after President Donald Trump tested positive for the coronavirus.
McEnany says in a statement that she tested positive Monday morning and is experiencing no symptoms at this time. She spoke briefly with reporters Sunday evening, but says that no members of the White House press corps spent enough time around her to be considered close contacts.
She says that she is beginning the quarantine process and “will continue working on behalf of the American People remotely.”
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11:20 a.m.
White House officials maintain that President Donald Trump continues to work from the hospital as he battles COVID-19. The White House says the president signed two permits for cross-border petroleum pipeline projects over the weekend, while at his presidential hospital suite at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Trump signed the permits — for projects running between Montana and Canada, and Texas and Mexico — on Saturday, on his first full day at the military hospital.
Trump has boasted of helping to make the U.S. “energy dominant” and has wide campaign support in the oil and gas industry. He has put an emphasis on pushing through oil and gas pipeline projects throughout his administration, including issuing executive orders and seeking to streamline regulations to override objections from states, tribes or others in the path of the pipelines.
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8:50 a.m.
White House officials say President Donald Trump is anxious to be released from the hospital as early as Monday, after three nights at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he’s being treated for COVID-19.
“This is an important day as the president continues to improve and is ready to get back to a normal work schedule,” White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told Fox News on Monday.
Meadows says the determination on whether Trump would leave the hospital won’t be made until later in the day after the president is evaluated by his medical team.
His doctors revealed on Sunday that Trump’s blood oxygen level dropped suddenly twice in recent days and that they gave him a steroid typically only recommended for the very sick.
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Source: AP News
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