in the video message released late last night in the united states early hours in the uk. we will hear perhaps from his surgeon. you're watching bbc news. you are watching bbc news, welcome to our viewers on the news channel. this is the live scene at the walter reed medical centre where president trump has been treated for it covid—19. his medical team is expected to give an update on his condition in the next couple of minutes. let's go live to our correspondent who is on the scene. what are you hearing about what the president's condition is at this moment ahead of the update? well, nothing other than that statement from the president's position that you mentioned that came out yesterday. they said they were cautiously optimistic. that was at the end of the day. we know the

press c0 nfe re nce the end of the day. we know the press conference or update they gave us press conference or update they gave us at the beginning of the day was a very different tone, talking about donald trump being ready to leave the hospital, he apparently said he felt like walking out of there, and his medical team seemed much more upbeat at the start of the day. then of course we had a day full of confusion, mixed messages, contradiction about what exactly the president's condition was, whether or not he had been given oxygen or not, whether he was more sick than was being relayed by his medical tea m was being relayed by his medical team or not. it was quite a day. it ended with that statement from the president's position saying they we re president's position saying they were cautiously optimistic. we are expecting an update from the team fairly soon. it will be interesting to see what tone they take. i think i mentioned when we spoke previously that there had been a lot of rumours and all sorts of theories swelling

on social media, so really important to have clear, consistent information from people surrounding the president, medical people, people in the know, whether or not we will get that is something we will have to wait or see. whether people will trust it is something else as well. indeed. i can see behind you some of the president's supporters. you have been talking to people there. what is the mood? they are ina people there. what is the mood? they are in a pretty good mood. they brought us kate recently. they have come to me quite big winner, usually there is music behind me so this time it is a little bit quieter but they have been in a pretty good mood and friendly towards the journalists. there have been some incidents werejoe biden supporters have shouted things out of the windows of cars and then it has been a bit more intense but overall they are any good mood and there have been office of coffee for journalists over the loudspeaker.

the white house has been at pains to try and project an image of strength. tell us a little bit about that. really interesting, even in the video that donald trump himself released yesterday, it was an office set up. we know he is able to work in the medicalfacility set up. we know he is able to work in the medical facility behind set up. we know he is able to work in the medicalfacility behind me. he has an office there, there is a secure conference centre. his chief of staff also has an office there, there is also facilities for his medical team to sleep there are so they can keep an eye on him 20 47 really and give him the care he needs. his daughter put up a post on instagram last night saying that her father was working for the american people relentlessly. that is very much the image they are trying to put across. earlier on, we heard

there is no plan to transfer power to the vice president mike pence. again, really pushing home that donald trump is in control, he is working and is in charge. as we await that update on his condition, we have heard from the national security advisor robert 0'brien who says the president wants to get back to the white house but he will remain hospitalised for more time. remind us about the course of treatment he is having right now. we know that he has been taking a cocktail of antibodies. he has also been taking a treatment, a multi—therapeutic regimen at the moment. but hopefully in the update we get from his medical team, we will get further information about any other medical treatment that he is receiving. as i have said, i

think the key will be really communicating clear and consistent information for the american people. thank you so much, we will be back with you after that briefing and earlier i spoke to consultant respiratory physician doctor phil whittaker. i asked respiratory physician doctor phil whittaker. iasked him how respiratory physician doctor phil whittaker. i asked him how the next few days might unfold for the president. we often see the worst symptoms developing when people get two days seven, eight, nine, ten of the condition. assuming he did develop symptoms on wednesday which was what one of the report said, it may well not be until the middle of the week or even next weekend before he is physically in the worst state in terms of the respiratory disease. what do you make of the fact that the white house finally has rather relu cta ntly the white house finally has rather reluctantly acknowledged that on friday morning it seems the president was given supplemental oxygen? i think there is a couple of things about his treatment. first of

all, he did receive experimental medication. these medications are still undergoing clinical trial and in fact one of them forms part of one of the uk's clinical trials, the recovery trial. he received experimental medicine. in terms of the oxygen, it is difficult to know because certainly in terms of the patients who are going to do worst with coronavirus, they are often the ones who need oxygen or have x—ray changes. however, the fact he needed oxygen so changes. however, the fact he needed oxygen so early is difficult to understand because at that point you would have expected him to develop any significant respiratory disease. the fact he is now off oxygen is probably a positive sign and hopefully, he will continue to improve, but like i say, the danger points might not be until the middle oi’ points might not be until the middle or even the end of next week. and under normal circumstances, would you expect a somebody of the

president's age and condition to recover, adding in the fact he is receiving probably the best medical ca re receiving probably the best medical care in the world at this point? that is right. he has a couple of risk factors. he is over 70 which is probably the main one for him. he may be slightly overweight, it is difficult to know, but to my knowledge it doesn't have any of the major risk factors which are diabetes, heart conditions. although he is over 70, falls into a relatively lower risk group to that age group. the likelihood by far is that he will make a slow and steady recovery rather than deteriorating. the president because my doctor did say yesterday that they especially wa nt to say yesterday that they especially want to observe the president as he potentially enters the second information phase of the illness. can you tell us a bit more about that? that is right, we do the same in bradford as well. we may have a

patient, for example, who is on day six or seven of their illness. they are already needing a tiny bit of oxygen but they have quite a lot of x—ray changes. these are the people who are at risk of deterioration in the get today's nine or ten so we will keep people in until they are over that interface. 0nce will keep people in until they are over that interface. once they get two days 11, i2, over that interface. once they get two days 11, 12, the often much more happy to discharge people, but you do get a second inflammatory response about that time to something you have to be careful of. doctor phil whittaker speaking to me earlier. let's cross live to the walter reed medical centre where mr trump is being treated and speak to our correspondence. remind us, what was the last update on the present‘s condition. what did it say? the last update was from his position last night, saying they are cautiously optimistic and much more cautious

note, then they had given earlier on in the day. they told they gave earlier was much more upbeat, really, about the president's condition. today we have seen some tweets from donald trump, around five tweets from him, from inside the medical centre. i guess is you are saying trying to show people that he is up and about, he is working, working, he is still in control. just remind us, yesterday's briefing was pretty confusing. the white house physician was forced to offer several clarification afterwards. what was that about? absolutely, it was. the medical team asked several times about whether or not the president had ever been given oxygen. the reply they gave was very confusing. at first saying

that he was not on oxygen at the moment and then giving an answer that really kind of called into question the timeline of mr trump's sickness, and then within an hour of this very upbeat briefing that they gave, where they quoted donald trump as saying he was almost ready to walk out of there and saying they we re walk out of there and saying they were really pleased with his progress, we had a briefing from somebody close to the white house, somebody close to the white house, somebody who was familiar with the president's health. excuse the motorbike there! that briefing said they were much more concerned about him. and the vital signs were much more worrying. then it turned out the person doing that briefing was his chief of staff. what do you make of that? at the end of the day, we had this much more cautious line same they were cautiously optimistic. what this does for trusting their messaging? i don't know. what this does to allay any

fears that people may have, i am not really sure. we will have to wait and see. thank you and we can see the president's physician coming out now and he is about to brief us and update us on the condition of the president of the united states who spent a second night in hospital having been infected with coronavirus. let's listening. since we spoke last, the president has continued to improve. as with any illness, there are frequent ups and downs over the course, especially when the patient is being so closely watch 24 hours a day. we review and debate every finding compared to existing science and literature, weighing the risks and benefits of every intervention, its timing as well as any potential impacts italy may have. 0ver well as any potential impacts italy may have. over the course of his illness, the president has experienced two episodes of transit drops in his oxygen saturation. we

debate scratch might be to the reasons and whether we should intervene. —— we debated the reasons. i would like to take this opportunity now, given some special edition of the course of the illness over the last couple of days, and update you on the course of his own illness. there night into friday morning when i left the bedside, the president was doing well with only mild symptoms, his oxygen was in the high 90s. late friday morning when i return to the bedside the president had a high fever and his oxygen saturation was transiently dipping below 94%. given these two developments i was concerned by the rapid progression of the illness. a recommended supplemental oxygen to see how he would respond. he was very adamant he didn't need it, he was not short of breath, he was tired, had the fever and that was about it. for about a minute on only

two litres, his saturation levels we re two litres, his saturation levels were back to over 95%. he stayed on that for about an hour maybe. it was off and gone. later that day, by the time the team here was at the bedside the president had been up out of bed, moving about the residents with only mild symptoms. despite this, everyone agreed the best quest of action was to move to walter reed for more thorough evaluation monitoring. i would now like to invite up doctorjulie. thank you, before i begin a brief clinical update on his condition, i wa nt to clinical update on his condition, i want to reiterate my comments from yesterday regarding how proud i am to be part of this multidisciplinary multi—institutional team of professionals behind me and what an honour it is to care for the president here at walter reed national medical centre. regarding

his clinical status, the patient continues to improve. he has remained without fever since friday morning. his vital signs are stable, from a pulmonary standpoint he is not complaining of shortness of breath this morning. he is walking around the white house medical unit without limitation or disability. 0ur continued monitoring of his cardiac, liver and kidney function demonstrates continued normal findings or improving findings. i will now turn it over to doctor garibaldi from john hopkins to about our therapeutics. i want to reiterate what an honour and privilege it is to take care of the

president and be part of such a talented team here. the president yesterday evening completed a second dose of remdesivir, he tolerated that infusion well. we are monitoring for potential side—effects and he has had none we can tell. his liver and kidney function have remained normal. we continue to plan to use a five day of remdesivir. in response to transient low oxygen levels, as doctor connelly has discussed, we did initiate dexamethasone therapy and he received his first doze yesterday and i plan is to continue that for the time being. today he feels well. he has been up and around. 0ur feels well. he has been up and around. our plan is to have him to eat and drink, be up out of bed as much as possible, to be mobile and if he continues to look as well as he does today, we hope for a discharge as early as tomorrow to the white house where he can continue his treatment course. i will turn over to doctor connelly for any questions. just a moment

please. the president wanted me to share how proud he is of the group. what an honour it is for him to be receiving his care here, surrounded by such incredible talent, academic leaders, department chairs, internationally renowned researchers and clinicians, including the support of doctor garibaldi from john hopkins. i would like to reiterate how pleased we all are but the present‘s recovery and with that i will take your questions. you said there were two incidences where he had drops in oxygen. can you walk us through the second one and i have a question for the lung specialist afterwards. yesterday that there was another episode where he dropped down about 92%. he never feel short of breath, we watched it and it returned back up. we evaluate all of these and given the timeline where he is in the course of illness, we are trying to maximise everything that we can do for him and we debated whether we would even start

it. the dexamethasone. we decided in this case, the potential benefits earlier on in the course probably outweighed any risks at this time. did you give him a second round of supplemental oxygen yesterday?” would have to check with the nursing staff. if he did, it was very limited. he is not on oxygen, and the only oxygen i order to be provided was that friday morning initially. what time was that yesterday? what was yesterday? the second incidence? it was over the course of the day, yesterday morning. the present's blood oxygen level. 9896. what did the x-rays and ct scans show? either signs of pneumonia? are there signs of lung involvement? were any damage to the lungs? we are tracking all of that.

there are some expected findings but nothing of any clinical concern. did his oxygen level ever dip below 90? we don't have any recordings here of that. what about the white house? anything below 90? no, it was below 94%, it wasn't in the 80s no. yesterday you told us that the president was in great shape and fever free for the previous 24 hours. minutes after a press conference, white house staff told reporters that the president's vitals were very concerning over the past vitals were very concerning over the pa st 24 vitals were very concerning over the past 24 hours. a simple question for the american people. whose statements about the present's health should be listened to? we work side by side and i think a statement was misconstrued. what he meant was 24 hours ago, when he and i were checking on the president,

there was that momentary episode of there was that momentary episode of the high fever and that temporary drop in the saturation, which prompted us to act expediently to move him up here. fortunately, that was really a very transient limited a cts was really a very transient limited acts out —— episode. a couple of hours later, he was back up again. i am not going to speculate what that episode was about early in the quest, but he is doing well. what are the expected findings in his lungs and what is the president not wearing a mask in his videos? the president wears a mask anytime he is around us and we are all wearing our full ppe. he is the patient and when we can, when he will move out and about and around other people, that aren't in full ppe, i assure you as long as he is under our care, we will talk about him wearing our mask. i will not go into the

specifics of his care. the lung function question. i would just share that like any patient, we performed lung experiment tree on him and he is maxing it out. he has over 2500 millilitres each time. he is doing great. as it showing any irregularities in his lungs? the president had been administered oxygen? that's a good question. i was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude that the team, the president, has had over his question illness. he didn't want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction and in doing so, it came off that we were trying to hide something which wasn't necessarily true. here i have it. the fact of

the matter is he is doing really well. he is responding and as the tea m well. he is responding and as the team said, if everything continues to go well, we will start discharging him back to the white house. thank you. that is doctor sean connelly saying the president is doing very well. they plan to discharge him back to the white house when they can, but also saying that the president twice has had his oxygen that the president twice has had his oxyg e n level that the president twice has had his oxygen level drop down to a position where they found it to be concerning enough. let's go live to our correspondent who is on the scene. the present's position having to say that he wasn't meaning to be misleading yesterday. —— the president's physician. it was quite something if you thought that would allay fears. certainly i was left with a lot of questions. the issue

of the oxygen, he mentioned the president had to be oxygenated twice. he then went on to talk about the time on friday saying it was a very short period that he happened to be oxygenated for. it was only in the question is where journalists pushed him and said, what about that second time? he said, oh, there was a second round of oxygen but he didn't give details on how low the levels dropped or how long he had to be on the oxygen for and said we would have to ask the nursing. it is extraordinary for the president's tea m extraordinary for the president's team to have to tell the surrounding press corps that yesterday they were trying to reflect an upbeat attitude yesterday and didn't want to give information that might steer his illness in a different direction, and saying they take on board that they came across as if they were hiding things and that wasn't the intention. two physicians were

saying that the president is doing well and talking about the possibility of discharging him, perhaps as early as tomorrow saying he can continue his treatment at the white house. there are also questions about his long and rather evasive answers, about his lungs and what scans may show. there were a lot of questions that were asked about were not really fully answered. as i said, if this was supposed to clear up questions i am not sure that it did. i was left with a lot more questions than i had going into this thing. i suppose we will have to wait and see whether there is further reaction from the white house or people surrounding the president, whether there are further updates and his team answering those questions that were put. we were told that the president is walking around. that is consistent with the image the white

house is trying to project of the president being at work. yeah, we we re president being at work. yeah, we were also told the same thing yesterday, that he was up and about, that he was jovial, that he was joking and getting back to his normal self. in fairness, we have seen donald trump tweeting several times. he did put out that the deal last night where he was sat at a table with the flags behind him and very much at work set up. he thanked his supporters that you can hear behind me, his daughter put that instagram. saying that her father was working relentlessly. in fairness, he certainly does seem to be up and about but this messaging from his team really seems to be... it leaves a lot of questions, really. i think people were looking for clarity and perhaps less of the upbeat nurse and just simple facts.

—— less of being upbeat. upbeat nurse and just simple facts. -- less of being upbeat. critically, if the president is being discharged they were saying he can continue his treatment at the white house. they mentioned it was a five—day course of remdesivir that he is on. i would imagine that if he goes back to the white house, he will be monitored very closely and his treatment well continued there. i would also imagine being the person but donald trump is, he will be itching to get back to the white house and to try and convey even more of a sense of normalcy, and we must say it is frightening for citizens, for people in any country when their leader is unwell. it is understandable that donald trump would want to reassure people that he is back at home and on the mend. thanks so much. we have just heard from the president's physician that the patient continues to improve, he doesn't have a fever,

but he has twice had his oxygen level drop down, but they hope to discharge him perhaps as soon as tomorrow. back to the white house. hello there. it has been a wet two or three days for many parts of the united kingdom. some of the wettest areas have had over 100 millimetres of rain on sunday morning. that is above the october average falling in three days and it has kept falling today. there have been some areas where we have seen sunshine around the centre of low pressure, but it is such a slow—moving area of low pressure with its bands of cloud, it is only slowly going to meander its way northwards and stay with us so there will be further wet weather. more showery in nature. numerous flood warnings in force at the moment, we expect that number to rise. you can find out more information from our website on where exactly is affected. this is how we have seen the rain through the early part

of the afternoon falling across scotland, northern ireland, across southern wales, southern and eastern parts of england. in between that, it is looking brighter but heavy showers coming down and around the periphery of the area of low pressure we have the added complication of strong winds, gusts of around 50—55 mph, even stronger through the channel islands. the rain bands continue to meander around the area of the pressure through this evening and overnight. turning showery and again, temperatures should hold up. it will not be very cold anywhere, six or seven. but bright weather. a little bit of mist first thing in the morning. this area of low pressure is going to be with us for the next two or three days. further showers, longer spells of rain, brisk winds. it stays disturbed and unsettled. for monday, it looks like the rain is more showery for some parts where it has been persistent during the day but we could see it

returning to northern ireland and wales in western england. in between, though showers can be quite heavy with hail and thunder. temperatures a little higher than those of today, especially towards the south because we have more sunshine around. the devil will be in the detail with those showers, the wind whips up again through tuesday across some areas. england and wales, more showers. they will be slower moving further north. by wednesday, perhaps a bit of respite but thursday looks quite nasty too.

this is bbc news. the headlines at 5:00. president trump is continuing to improve according to his doctors and could be discharged tomorrow but they confirm he did need oxygen and had a high fever on friday the president has continued to improve. as with any illness, there are frequent ups and downs over the course, particularly when a patient is being so closely watched 24 hours a day. i came here, wasn't feeling so well. i feel much better now. from hospital earlier — the president said he hoped to be back soon, acknowledging that the real test lies ahead. the prime minister warns there could be "a very tough winter" ahead, as the country deals with coronavirus.