United States President Donald Trump’s blood oxygen level has twice fallen below 95 per cent, including a dip to 93 per cent temporarily on Saturday, White House physician Sean Conley said Sunday, Oct. 4 at around 12am Singapore time.
The 95 per cent level is considered an important threshold.
Trump is now being treated with dexamethasone, a steroid given for serious Covid-19 infections, numerous media reports have reported.
This was administered in response to the second blood oxygen level drop.
However, his doctors insist the president is recovering well.
Trump was previously given supplemental oxygen on Friday.
Doctors have reported that some seriously ill coronavirus patients may not report feeling out of breath but can have critically low levels of blood oxygen.
Trump improving: Doctor
Despite these two incidents, Trump’s condition is continuing to improve, Conley said during a news conference.
He added that Trump’s medical team is hoping to discharge the president “as early as tomorrow”, on Monday.
Back and forth about Trump's condition
Trump was walking around the presidential suite of Walter Reed without issue earlier Sunday, one his doctors said during the news conference.
However, conflicting assessments of the president's health have been issued since Saturday.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows had given a contradictory assessment initially stating that "the president's vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning".
The statement appeared at odds with an assessment by White House doctors that the president was "doing very well".
Meadows seemed to clarify late Saturday that comments pertaining to poor health had applied to Friday, when Trump revealed he and the First Lady Melania Trump have Covid-19.
In response to media reports speculating what could happen next with Trump still taken ill, Meadows said "there was never a consideration and never even a risk of a transition of power".
What White House doctor said
White House doctor Conley said Trump was doing “well” late Thursday and early Friday and showed only mild symptoms at that time.
But by late Friday morning, Trump had a high fever, and his blood oxygen level dipped below 94 per cent, Conley said.
Trump was then given supplemental oxygen for “about an hour,” despite the president insisting he didn’t need it, Conley said.
Later Friday, Trump was transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for continued evaluation and monitoring.
After Trump’s blood oxygen level dipped again on Saturday ― this time to 93 per cent ― his doctors made the decision to administer a first dose of dexamethasone.
The president on Saturday also completed his second dose of remdesivir, an antiviral drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use in treating hospitalised coronavirus patients.
Trump hasn’t had a fever since Friday, his medical team said Sunday.
A normal blood oxygen level, which indicates the oxygen saturation of someone’s blood, usually ranges from 95 per cent to 100 per cent, according to the Mayo Clinic.