President Trump was discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and returned to the White House on Monday evening to continue his fight against the novel coronavirus, after his medical team warned that he “may not entirely be out of the woods yet.”

Dressed in a navy suit and tie and wearing a face mask, Trump walked out of Walter Reed on his own. Upon walking out the doors of the hospital, he made a low fist pump and gave a thumbs up to the press as he got into a black SUV to head to Marine One.

US President Donald Trump, who has been hospitalised with COVID-19, was driven around outside the medical facility on Sunday so he could wave to a group of supporters on the street in a move critics derided as a dangerous political stunt.

Video showed Trump, wearing a black mask, waving from the back seat of a black four-wheel drive with two men – also masked – in the front seats.

White House physician Sean Conley said he supports President Trump's plan to depart Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Monday evening.

Minutes after Trump tweeted that he would return to the White House at 6:30 p.m., Conley told reporters that Trump has improved since being diagnosed with COVID-19 but cautioned that there remains some risk to the 74-year-old's health.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said President Donald Trump's condition "continued to improve" Sunday night and that he may still leave the hospital Monday as he battles a COVID-19 infection.

John Roberts of Fox News tweeted the update from Meadows:

"URGENT: From WH COS Mark Meadows to Fox News: 'Spoke to the President this morning. He continued to improve over night and is ready to get back to a normal working schedule. He will meet with his doctors and nurses this morning to make further assessments of his progress.

President Donald Trump and the team of doctors treating him for the coronavirus will decide Monday whether to discharge him from Walter Reed Medical Center, NBC News reported.

Trump’s possible departure could send a signal that his health is improving following his diagnosis. But the move is bound to breed skepticism among those who have criticized administration officials for a lack of transparency on the president’s condition, particularly in light of the numerous treatments he is known to have taken.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Monday morning that officials are “still optimistic” President Donald Trump will leave Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and return to the White House later in the day.

“Spoke to the President this morning. He continued to improve over night and is ready to get back to a normal working schedule,” Meadows said in a statement to Fox News.

“President Donald Trump said from his hospital room on Saturday that he felt ‘much better’ but the next few days will be ‘the real test’ of his treatment for COVID-19… A White House team of doctors said on Saturday morning that Trump’s condition was improving and that he was already talking about returning to the White House…

Vice President Mike Pence was put on standby to temporarily assume the powers of the presidency during President Donald Trump's unannounced visit to Walter Reed hospital in November 2019, according to a copy of New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt's forthcoming book obtained by CNN.

Vice President Mike Pence was reportedly put on standby to temporarily assume the powers of the presidency during President Trump’s November 2019 visit to Walter Reed hospital, claims a forthcoming book by New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt.

President Trump spent more than two hours at Walter Reed National Medical Center on Saturday, undergoing what the White House said were medical tests as part of his annual physical.

The appointment -- which followed a previous exam in February -- didn't appear on the president's public schedule, as was the case for his physicals last year and this year. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told Fox News' "Justice with Judge Jeanine" on Saturday night that Trump had decided to "kind of get a headstart with some routine checkups."