The U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin remains in hospital and is in “good condition” after treatment for prostate cancer, the Pentagon said Saturday.
Austin has resumed some of his duties from his hospital bed and is in “contact with his senior staff,” the statement outlined.
No specific date has been set for his release from care.
Austin, 70, was admitted to an intensive care unit on 1 January due to complications from a late-December surgery.
But senior defence officials and the White House did not learn Austin was seriously ill until three days later, as Breitbart News reported, with calls for his resignation growing in the days since his absence was first noted.
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President Joe Biden on Friday said Austin displayed a lapse in judgment for not letting him know about his hospitalization. However, he reaffirmed his confidence in his defense secretary.
Republican members of the Senate Armed Service Committee sent a letter to Austin Wednesday demanding the Pentagon give a detailed timeline of events concerning the Defense secretary’s “incapacitation” and hospitalization.
“We are deeply troubled by the apparent breakdown in communications between your office and the rest of the Department of Defense, the White House, and Congress over the past two weeks,” they wrote.
