'FEELING GREAT’ TRUMP MAKES BRIEF SPEECH BEFORE ASSEMBLED CROWD

Boasting about his achievements and hurling unsubstantiated allegations against his opponents, US President Donald Trump appeared back to his old self as he addressed supporters at the White House in his first public event since being diagnosed with COVID-19 and a flesh-colored bandage was still plastered on his right hand, indicating he may still be nourished intravenously, Andrea Shalal and James Oliphant reported for Reuters.

Standing alone and not wearing a mask, the Republican president spoke from a White House balcony at an event called “a peaceful protest for law & order,” urging a crowd of hundreds of largely Black and Latino supporters. His appearance - amid continued questions over whether he is still contagious - is seen as a first step toward resuming full campaigning next week. He is due to go to Florida, Pennsylvania, and Iowa, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, respectively. Trump is taking the steroid dexamethasone, which is used to prevent inflammation in the lungs, a common symptom among patients afflicted with serious COVID-19 infections who need to stay in hospital for at least 20 days.

The White House has not released the results of Trump’s latest COVID-19 test and has declined to say when he last tested negative. Trump first revealed that he had had a positive test on Oct. 2 and on Thursday said he was no longer contagious, which some experts say is unlikely. The White House last gave a public assessment of Trump’s health status on Thursday when the president’s doctor, Dr. Sean Conley, said in a memo that Trump had completed his course of therapy for the coronavirus, had responded “extremely well” to treatment, and cleared him for public engagements.

Trump delivered a wide-ranging speech that touched on scrapping former President Barack Obama’s ‘Obamacare’ healthcare reform law, criminal justice reform, and the state of the economy. But opinion polls increasingly show that as Election Day approaches, voters see Nov. 3 as a chance to cast a vote on Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 213,000 Americans. The Trump administration has faced widespread criticism for its handling of the pandemic, as well as for a lax approach to mask-wearing and social distancing in the White House and - in recent days - confusing messages about how ill the president has been. Trump repeated past calls for states to reopen their economies even as new cases of COVID-19 hit a two-month high on Friday. A Reuters analysis showed that there were over 58,000 infections reported and hospitalizations in the Midwest hit record levels for a fifth day in a row. Democrats and some commentators criticized Saturday’s White House event for potentially exposing a new batch of supporters to the virus and for using a federal building as an election prop.