Herman Cain, a 2012 Republican presidential candidate, remains hospitalized one month after being diagnosed with COVID-19, his team said Monday.
“We know it’s been a few days since we last gave you an update on the boss,” Cain’s team wrote in a statement shared to his Twitter account. “But he is still in the hospital being treated with oxygen for his lungs.”
The statement continued:
In the meantime, the doctors say his other organs and systems are strong. Re-strengthening the lungs is a long and slow process, and the doctors want to be thorough about it.
We’d like him to be able to come home now, which is frustrating, but we’re glad the doctors are being thorough and making sure they do the job right. Thank you for praying, everyone. Please keep doing it. He really is getting better, which means it is working.
Cain, 74, learned he tested positive for the virus on June 29, according to a statement on his Twitter account earlier this month. Two days later, he was hospitalized at an Atlanta-area hospital after developing “serious” symptoms.
His diagnosis came less than two weeks after he attended President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Cain, who co-chairs Black Voices For Trump, tweeted a photo of himself without a mask on at the event, which was attended by several thousand people.
Several Trump campaign staffers and Secret Service agents tested positive for the coronavirus following the rally. Roughly two weeks after the event, Tulsa officials reported a surge in coronavirus cases in the city.
Dan Calabrese, an editor for HermanCain.com, said earlier this month that he’s unsure where Cain may have contracted the virus.
“I realize people will speculate about the Tulsa rally, but Herman did a lot of traveling the past week, including to Arizona where cases are spiking,” Calabrese wrote on July 2. “I don’t think there’s any way to trace this to the one specific contact that caused him to be infected. We’ll never know.”
The Trump campaign said contact tracing was conducted after the rally but declined to comment on individuals’ medical information.
Cain did not meet with the president at the rally, a campaign spokesperson told HuffPost on Monday.
Public health officials had warned of the dangers posed by the Tulsa rally, which was held at a 19,000-seat arena during the pandemic. Acknowledging the risks, the Trump campaign required attendees to agree to not sue Trump if they contracted the virus at the event.
Cain was diagnosed with colon and liver cancer in 2006. He underwent chemotherapy and surgery before the cancer went into remission.
In its statement announcing Cain’s diagnosis earlier this month, Cain’s team called the former business executive “a fighter who has beaten Stage 4 cancer.”
“Please join us in praying for Mr. Cain, and for everyone who has contracted the coronavirus ― as well as their families,” the statement said.
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