'I feel so powerful': Trump returns to campaign trail after testing negative for coronavirus

US President Donald Trump, with the presidential election just three weeks away, returnedto the campaign trail on Monday after being hospitalised for coronavirus, and set off on a blitz of key swing states. He tested negative for COVID-19 on consecutive days, the White House physician said.

Trump's evening rally at an airport in Sanford, Florida,kicked off a three-week sprint to Election Day as new polls show him losing more ground to Democratic rival Joe Biden in two battleground states that could decide the November 3 contest.

"It's great to be back in my home state, Florida, to make my official return to the campaign trail," Trump declaredinfront of a crowd of thousands of supporters, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, mostly without masks, despite the ongoing pandemic.

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"I am so energised by your prayers and humbled by your support," he said.

Trump -- yet again -- played down the coronavirus and said, "22 days from now we're going to win this state. We're going to win four more years at the White House."

"I feel so powerful. I'll walk into that audience. I'll walk in there, and I'll kiss everyone in that audience. I'll kiss the guys and the beautiful women... everybody," he added.

In rare form just a week after his release from hospital, Trump's hour-long speech called on all of his campaign classics: vicious attacks against "Crooked Hillary" Clinton and the "corrupt" press, alarmist warnings against the "radical left" and the "socialist nightmare."

Trump also mocked his opponent, whom he has nicknamed "Sleepy Joe," saying that "practically nobody showed up" to Biden's campaign event.

Unlike Trump, Biden has been following public health guidelines during the pandemic, hosting socially-distanced campaign events that sharply contrast with Trump's packed, largely maskless extravaganzas -- including a recent celebration at the White House described by experts as a "superspreader."

The president was earlier declared non-contagious. or "not a transmission risk",following which he headed to Florida for hiscampaign rally -- since he disclosed he contracted the novel coronavirus.

"I can share with you that he tested negative, on consecutive days, using the Abbot BinaxNOW antigen card," Sean Conley said in a memo released to the public on Monday. The doctor said the negative determination had taken into account a number of measurements, and not just the rapid test alone.

Thebrief statement was issued while the president was on board Air Force One en route to Florida for thecampaign rally.

The US president said on October 2 that he contracted the virus, following which he spent three days in a military hospital. In a memo, Dr Sean Conley said the tests and other clinical and laboratory data "indicate a lack of detectable viral replication."

Trump's rally in Florida, and planned rallies in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Iowa on Wednesday and North Carolina on Thursday, will be watched closely to see whether the president has reshaped his campaign approach since contracting the virus.

Trump is now seeking to change the dynamics of a race that national opinion polls and some state polls show he is losing to Biden.

Trump told Fox News on Sunday he felt good and, without producing evidence, that he was now "immune", an assertion that drew a flag from Twitter for violating the social media platform's rules about misleading information related to COVID-19.

Biden also tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday, his campaign said in a statement. The former vice president has tested negative a number of times since Trump announced his positive test.

Biden pulled further ahead in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, building momentum in two states that Trump carried in the 2016 presidential election, Reuters/Ipsos opinion polls showed on Monday.

The polls, conducted Tuesday through Sunday, showed Biden now leading Trump by 7 percentage points in both states.

Taking advantage of his momentum and growing advantage in the polls, Biden on Monday campaigned in Ohio, where he was once considered a long shot, as he tries to expand his reach into Republican-leaning states.

Biden also appeared at a get-out-the-vote event in Cincinnati. It was Biden`s second campaign trip in as many weeks to Ohio, which was once thought out of reach but where polls now show a competitive race. He blasted his handling of the pandemic.

"215,000 dead because of Covid," the 77-year-old former vice president told a small group of auto workers who gathered in their American-made cars in a parking lot outside a union hall in Toledo, Ohio.

"Trump knew how dangerous the disease was but did nothing," Biden said. "Why didn't he tell us? Why didn't he warn us?"

"His reckless personal conduct since his diagnosis has been unconscionable," Biden added. "The longer Donald Trump is president, the more reckless he seems to get."

Trump won the state by 8 percentage points four years ago and almost certainly must carry it again to win re-election. No Republican has won the White House without carrying Ohio.

For months, Trump had worked furiously to shift public attention away from the virus and his handling of the pandemic, which has infected more than 7.8 million people in the United States, killed more than 214,000 and put millions out of work.

His own illness has put the spotlight squarely on his coronavirus response during the closing stretch of the race, with the Biden campaign scaling up its attacks and stretching its campaign into states that normally lean Republican.

Critics fault Trump for failing to encourage supporters at campaign events, and even White House staff, to wear protective masks and abide by social-distancing guidelines. At least 11 close Trump aides have tested positive for the coronavirus.

(with inputs from agencies)