Dr. Sean Conley announced Saturday that President Donald Trump was no longer at risk of transmitting COVID-19.
The good news was released in a memo by Dr. Conley stating that President Trump meets the CDC’s criteria for safely discontinuing isolation and that by “currently recognized standards” he is no longer considered a transmission risk.
The memo follows Trump’s first public appearance since returning to the White House after being treated for the coronavirus. The event was attended by hundreds on the South Lawn, but Trump maintained distance, making his address from a White House balcony.
Trump took off a mask moments after he emerged on the balcony to address the crowd on the lawn below, his first step back onto the public stage with just more than three weeks to go until Election Day. He flouted, once more, the safety recommendations of his own government just days after acknowledging that he was on the brink of “bad things” from the virus and claiming that his bout with the illness brought him a better understanding of it.
His return was a brief one. With bandages visible on his hands, likely from an intravenous injection, Trump spoke for 18 minutes, far less than at his normal hour-plus rallies. He appeared healthy, if perhaps a little hoarse, as he delivered what was, for all intents and purposes, a short version of his campaign speech despite the executive mansion setting.
