US President Donald Trump, who spent his first night in the hospital as a COVID-19 patient, said he was doing well, news agency AFP reported. Three senators as well as Trump’s campaign manager and other senior aides are among a growing list from the President’s orbit to have contracted the virus. At least seven confirmed cases are tied to an event in the White House Rose Garden last weekend.

“Going well, I think! Thank you to all. Love!!!” Trump said in his first tweet from the hospital late Friday. He had walked out of the White House under his own power — and wearing a mask.

In an 18-second video recorded inside the White House and released on Twitter, Trump broke his silence, saying he was being hospitalised but “I think I’m doing very well.”

Also Read | With Kellyanne Conway, Bill Stephanie testing positive for COVID-19, cases rise at White House

“We’re going to make sure that things work out,” he said, adding that First Lady Melania Trump — who also contracted the virus — was “doing very well.” But much remains unknown about his exact symptoms — described by the White House as mild — and how he caught the virus.

Trump, who is trailing in the polls, knocked off the campaign trail for treatment at the Walter Reed Army medical center outside Washington — and possibly for many days after — his campaign plans were in disarray ahead of a potentially messy election on November 3.

Also Read | ‘I’m not’: When Donald Trump told Bob Woodward he wasn’t concerned about catching COVID-19

Among the unknowns were the prospects for two remaining presidential debates and whether the President will have to yield power temporarily to Vice President Mike Pence if his condition worsens.

Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump was receiving the anti-viral drug remdesivir following consultation with specialists and not requiring any supplemental oxygen. She said medical experts recommended he work from presidential offices at Walter Reed for the next few days as a precaution.

Also Read | Donald Trump hospitalised after testing positive for COVID-19, says ‘doing very well’

Former White House top aide Kellyanne Conway and Trump’s campaign manager, 42-year-old Bill Stepien, also tested positive.

So have two other Republican senators — Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Mike Lee of Utah. The latter sit on the chamber’s Judiciary Committee, which is slated to hold hearings for Amy Coney Barrett, Trump’s conservative nominee to fill a vacant seat on the Supreme Court.

Also Read | Donald Trump on Remdesivir therapy, doing well: White House physician

Public health experts have expressed alarm at the number of cases that appear linked to a celebration of Barrett’s nomination at the Rose Garden on September 26. At least seven people who attended have tested positive, including Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Conway, Tillis, Lee and University of Notre Dame President John Jenkins.

These are uncharted waters for the US election with Trump — who is well behind his Democratic opponent Joe Biden in the polls — having to freeze much of his campaign.

Also Read | Donald Trump hospitalised, will he invoke the 25th Amendment? All you need to know about the law

News of Trump’s infection came after one of his closest advisors, Hope Hicks, tested positive — sparking fears of a cluster of cases emanating from the heart of the White House. Trump met with dozens of people through the week and reportedly went to a fundraiser in New Jersey after it was known that Hicks had contracted the virus. Vice President Mike Pence and other senior figures tested negative. The White House said Coney Barrett was negative too.