The voices of the voters. How americans are reacting to the news that the president is hospitalized. My first reaction was, oh, my god. [ cheers ] the well wishes as many wonder what this means for the campaign. Football sidelined. The patriots chiefs game postponed after reports players on both sides tested positive for covid19, including star quarterback cam newton. Plus, the report of a positive test overnight for a saints player. And cinema shutdown . Reports that more than 500 Regal Cinemas are being shuttered. The news about this bigbudget movie that may have been the last straw. And good morning. The president looking to reassure americans about his condition by tweeting out a video overnight. His doctor says trump has made substantial progress since he was diagno he says the president is not out of the woods, but hes cautiously optimistic. That coming after a day of contradictory statements. His doctors comments not quite matching up with what the white house was saying about the president s health. And there are growing concerns about how the white house has handled testing and Contact Tracing. The president is now among at least eight people who have tested positive after the white house event on september 26th to reveal the president S Supreme Court nominee. Among the people at the event now infected, former new Jersey Governor Chris Christie who has checked himself into a hospital. Multiple sources telling abc news that friday night was, quote, scary, and they were concerned about the president. For the latest this morning on the president s condition, lets go to abcs rachel scott in bethesda, maryland. Rachel, good morning. Reporter whit, good morning. The white house has offered conflicting messages on the president s health. Bottom line here, we still do not know when the president will be discharged, when he first started experiencing symptoms, or how he was infected. The president insists he is feeling better. But that came just hours after a senior white house official told us he is still not on a clear path to full recovery. Overnight, President Trump recording this video from the hospital telling the American People hes on the road to recovery, but admitting hes not out of the woods just yet. I came here, wasnt feeling so well. I feel much better now. You dont know. Over the next period of a few days, i guess thats the real test. So well be seeing what happens over those next couple of days. Reporter this coming after a stark warning from a senior white house official telling us the next 48 hours will be critical in the president s fight against the virus. That assessment at odds with what doctors told reporters earlier saturday. This morning the president is doing very well. Its ior4 ur we remain cautiously optimistic, but hes doing great. Reporter at walter reed, the president s medical team insisted trumps symptoms, a mild cough, nasal congestion, and fatigue were improving, but dodged key questions about his health. Do you have an estimated date when he might be discharged . Well, i dont want to put a hard date on that. What was his fever when he had one, sir . Id rather not give any specific numbers. Reporter has there been any sign of im not going to go into specifics of what the findings are. Reporter the white house physician, dr. Sean conley, repeatedly declined to say if the president ever received supplemental oxygen. Has he ever been on supplemental oxygen . Right now he is not on i understand. I know you keep saying right now. Should we read into the fact that he had been previously . Yesterday and today he was not on oxygen. Reporter sources tell abc news President Trump had trouble breathing on friday and did receive supplemental oxygen at the white house before he was transferred to Walter Reed Medical Center. Yesterday morning we were real concerned with that. He had a fever and a blood oxygen level had dropped rapidly. Reporter the president s doctors said he finished the second dose of the experimental drug remdesivir saturday evening. This morning the still unclear when and how the president was infected. The white houses physician has already had to backtrack on the timing of the president s diagnosis. Just 72 hours into the diagnosis now. The first week of covid. Reporter conley saying he incorrectly suggested trump tested positive wednesday, not thursday. And now a growing list of officials and advisers close to the president have contracted the virus. The latest, his personal assistant and body man, nick luna, seen here next to hope hicks without a mask boarding air force one just one day before she tested positive. Eight others w w feedto at a reception inside the white house that day, guests maskless and close together, and outside sitting in the first four rows, the first lady, senator mike lee, senator thom tillis, former adviser kellyanne conway, reverend john jenkins and former new Jersey Governor Chris Christie. All have the virus. Christie, an abc news contributor, spotted here hugging other attendees. Overnight, revealing due to a history of asthma, he checked himself into a hospital as a precautionary measure and is experiencing mild symptoms. Christie was also in the room for the president s debate prep. Five of the nine there have tested positive. Were folks Wearing Masks . Were you wearing a mask . No. No one was Wearing Masks in the room when we were prepping the president during that period of time. Reporter three senators have now tested positive for the virus. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell said he will be canceling all senate votes for the next two weeks. But he made it clear the senate will be coming back for the confirmation hearing of the president S Supreme Court nominee, judge Amy Coney Barrett. That is scheduled for october 12th. Democrats are slamming the move calling it reckless and dangerous. Eva . Rachel scott for us at walter reed, thank you. Joining us now is chief medical correspondent dr. Jen ashton. Thank you so much for being with us this morning. In rachels piece, we saw the video of the president speaking from the hospital. He said in that video the next few days are the real test. Now weve been told that the president s vital signs were at least at one point very concerning. We know that he received oxygen. What does that say to you . Wow, so much to unpack there. First of all, big picture here, as ive been saying from the start of this pandemic, i think it is really important to get medical information from medical professionals. Get political information from politicians. What may be very concerning to a layperson may not be very concerning to a physician. In terms of this oxygen question, i can only tell you as a practicing physician if i had a 74yearold man who happened to be the president of the United States, i would have an extremely low threshold for putting a little bit of supplemental oxygen on someone. We really cant read too much into what dropping means. If a number goes from 97 to 96, that is not as clinically significant as if it goes to 88, for example. We also know that the president and his staff are tested on a regular basis. With that amount of testing it, how is it possible that he and other senior staff were still exposed to this virus . Well, eva, this virus does not need security clearance. Testing for surveillance measures is not the same thing as preventive measures like masking and distancing and hand hygiene. Yo. So it is not a license to not wear a mask, sit inches apart from someone, or go into crowded places. We have to remember that in terms of viruses, theres a latency period where you can be exposed and, therefore, infected and test negative, and there are false negatives. So testing does not mean that all of those other measures dont get followed. And the white house has been criticized this morning for its Contact Tracing around all of this. Talk us through how Contact Tracing is supposed to work and what people who are exposed to someone who is exposed to the virus should do. So this is really important, eva, and this comes from cdc guidance. If you are exposed to a confirmed covid case, meaning prolonged, close contact, or potentially even an enclosed indoor space for a prolonged period of time, you go 48 hours from when that person developed symptoms or when they tested positive. So im going to use you as an example. If you were exposed to someone who tested positive on friday morning, you go back 48 hours from that point wednesday morning. If you were with that person on monday, you do not need to selfquarantine. If youre within that 48hour period, you need to selfquarantine for 14 days, and eva, follow this one, testing does not exonerate you from that quarantine period. So you can test negative five times in 14 days. You still have to quarantine for 14 days. An important clarification for a lot of people who have questions about that Contact Tracing this morning. Dr. Jen ashton, thank you so much. Whit, over to you. Eva, turning now to the president ial campaign entering its last four weeks. Upended because of the president s illness. The Vice President ial debate still going ahead as scheduled on wednesday, but with at least one change. Abcs Andrew Dymburt joins us from washington with more on that part of the story. Andrew, good morning. Reporter and good morning, whit. The timing of the president s situation here really affecting both campaigns down the final stretch here. After the president tested positive for covid19, shortly after his debate with joe biden, now for the upcoming Vice President ial debates theres a trp nos itized himornafety. Heca while joe biden has pulled all negative ads. Both candidates now forced to reimagine their campaigns and reach out to voters virtually. While trump delivered this message from walter reed hospital, biden back in delaware for a digital town hall with Union Workers over the weekend. Im in a little bit of a spot here because i dont want to be attacking the president and the first lady. Reporter as he was leaving evening mass in wilmington, the former vp telling reporters that he was not tested saturday for the coronavirus, but that he will be sometime today. You were not tested today . I was yesterday. And youll be tomorrow . And tomorrow. Reporter with the campaign promising in a new statement to release the results of every covid19 test biden takes. With President Trump off the road and battling the virus, his Campaign Says it will still move forward with inperson events as early as next week, calling it operation maga. Meanwhile, a trump reelection bus tour also kicked off this weekend as scheduled with top surrogates gathering indoors. Few Wearing Masks. And in what has already been a wild race for the white house, shrouded with uncertainties in the midst of a pandemic, the runningmates are readying for a political showdown of their own as senator Kamala Harris prepares to take the debate stage against Vice President mike pence later in the week. She made a stop in salt lake city, utah. Lets do the work that is necessary to continue to fight for our ideals. Reporter for pence, hes pressing pause on the stumping. Hell be back on the trail next week. In light of President Trump testing positive for covid19, sources tell abc news harris and pence will sit 12 feet apart after the Biden Campaign requested more space during their debate. And theres been at least one notable shift in safety protocols from the trump Reelection Team after some staffers and surrogates were not Wearing Masks in iowa. They did start to wear them on the second part of their Team Trump Bus tour. Dan . Andrew dymburt, thank you. So much to talk about. Lets bring in our chief anchor George Stephanopoulos who is going to be hosting this week later this morning. George, good morning to you. So cold, hard political question here. How is this likely to play politically for the president . Is it likely to garner a lot of sympathy for him, or highlight a lot of the criticisms of his handling of the pandemic . Short answer is who knows . Weve never faced a situation like this before. Weve never had a president facing a personal Health Crisis just a month away from the final votes in a reelection campaign. But heres what we know about what the situation was before the president announced he had covid, before he was hospitalized. He was trailing by at least seven points. In the debate, the first polls that have come out since the debate show that the president bore most of the blame for what happened there on tuesday night and was likely losing some support. People believe he lost that debate. Weve got a new poll out this morning showing that nearly three in four americans believe the president didnt take the appropriate precautions, didnt take the chance of getting covid seriously enough. And we know that with about 30 days to go until the final votes the president had to do something to turn this around in a world where covid was the worst possible issue for him all through the course of this campaign. So i think its hard to imagine that this would help him. But again, we have no idea how this is being processed in the minds of the American People. This has been a wild year. So who knows whats going to happen next, as you said at the beginning of that question. What about for joe biden . How tricky a tightrope is this period of time for him . Well, you see how hes handling it. He came out immediately, wished the president well. But reinforced the message that hes been delivering all along during this campaign. We have to take the pandemic seriously. We have to take social distancing and mask wearing seriously. We cant fix Everything Else in this country until we get a handle on this pandemic. I think youre going to see him continue to focus on that. Whether were going to see another debate between joe biden and the president i think is a real open real open question. The first supposed to be on october 15th. Its kind of hard to imagine its going to take place on the 15th. Well have to see. Meanwhile, weve got the Vice President ial debate coming up. Does this now become increasingly significant given the current context . I think its possible that people will pay more attention because of the Health Crisis right now. I think theres no question about that. My guess is its going to be a more sedate affair than last tuesday. Yes. Pretty much anything would be. George stephanopoulos, thank you very much. I want to remind everybody to watch georges show. He will go one on one with Trump CampaignSenior Adviser jason miller and Biden Deputy Campaign manager kate bedingfield. Thats coming up on this week here on abc. George, thanks again. Eva, over to you. President Trumps Health could be a factor for markets in the week ahead. For more on that we go to abcs deidre bolton. Good morning. Reporter good morning. You said it, what is going on with the president right now is certainly going to affect the markets. So think about instability being injected into the system and uncertainty. So in this tick tock about how we hear the president is recuperating, if its faster, if its slower than expected, that is likely to move markets. Theres also questions, for example, if hes taking longer to recover, what does that mean for the functioning of government . How many other Senior Administration officials may fall ill . These are all questions that investors will be focused on. We saw the direct cause and effect. You remember this, the president tweeting out confirming that he had tested positive for coronavirus. That was at around 1 00 a. M. Eastern time, of course, on friday morning. You saw the dow futures drop immediately, 500 points. This just shows you to what extent investors are keyed in to what is going on. Of course with the coronavirus, it is a reminder when our president gets it, we are all vulnerable. And that, of course, casts a long shadow over our economic recovery. Dan . Yeah, the stakes are political, financial, psychological, profound in every day. Deidre, thank you very much. Were going to switch things up now and check the weather with rob marciano whos tracking Tropical Storm gamma from Westchester County in new york. Good morning to you. Reporter good morning. Another chilly day in the northeast, dan. The Tropical Storm gamma has done some business to mexico and some familiar spots if you go to the yucatan and cancun. Theyve got winds it was almost a hurricane when it came on shore. Heres cozumel doing some pier damage there. And you see the turquoise blue waters with nearly a Hurricane Storm there. Nine inches of rainfall, with more rain coming. Kind of stalled right there in the southern gulf of mexico. It will meander for some time. Were very active in the tropics. This will continue to bring potentially lifethreatening rain to mexico. Then another one behind this as this kind of sits in the bay. Were looking at the next alhe xico that one may well develop some of the computer models are doing that. At the very least, florida is going to see rainfall out of this. By thursday, friday, maybe saturday, getting closer to the northern gulf coast. This is something uncertain but we have to watch very cl