Trump 'no longer a transmission risk', to hold two rallies next week

US President Donald Trump is no longer contagious, nine days after being stopped in his tracks by Covid-19, his physician said in a statement released late Saturday.

"This evening I am happy to report that in addition to the President meeting CDC criteria for the safe discontinuation of isolation, this morning's COVID PCR sample demonstrates, by currently recognised standards, he is no longer considered a transmission risk to others," the president's physician Sean Conley said in the statement.

To this end, he will hold two more campaign rallies next week -- Tuesday in Pennsylvania, a battleground state key to his reelection hopes, and in Iowa on Wednesday.

The president's physician, who has been accused of a lack of transparency with the public, said it had been 10 days since Trump first began showing symptoms of the new coronavirus. He was hospitalised one day later, on October 2.

Tests showed there was "no longer evidence of actively replicating virus," and that Trump's viral load was "decreasing," Conley continued -- though he did not state that the president is now Covid-free.

Trump is fever-free and his symptoms have "improved," Conley said, adding that he would continue to monitor the president as he "returns to an active schedule."

Trump, who stayed in the hospital for three days before returning to the White House, has been pushing to jump back on the campaign trail.

He trails his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, badly in the polls with less than a month before the election on November 3.

In his first public address after recovering from coronavirus, Trump on Saturday told his supporters that he was "feeling great" from the White House balcony.

"Our nation will defeat the China virus, the vaccine is coming in record time, it is coming very soon," the US president said, adding," I am thankful to everyone who prayed for my health."

"Science, medicine will eradicate the China virus once and for all, it's going to disappear. It's disappearing," Trump asserted. "I have defeated the China virus, This disease is going to disappear."

(with inputs)