'Thank you for all the love': Melania Trump returns to campaign after Covid diagnosis

Melania Trump returned to the campaign trail on Tuesday afternoon, a week before election day and nearly a month after her positive test for coronavirus.

Related: US coronavirus cases surge in midwest as Trump heads there in campaign push

The first lady, a reluctant campaigner at the best of times, postponed a planned return last week, citing a “lingering cough” and an abundance of caution. She has not appeared at a Trump rally since the president kicked off his re-election campaign in Florida in June 2019. But on Tuesday she headed for the suburbs of Philadelphia, for an event aimed at appealing to female voters.

Pennsylvania, one of the post-industrial Democratic strongholds which Donald Trump won from Hillary Clinton in 2016, is emerging as perhaps the key battleground state in 2020. Joe Biden leads polling there by more than five points, according to the fivethirtyeight.com average, but results have narrowed as the president has returned to the state again and again.

Speaking in Atglen, the first lady told a crowd: “Thank you for the all the love you gave us when our family was diagnosed with Covid-19. We are feeling so much better now thanks to healthy living and some of the amazing therapeutic options available in our country.”

On Monday, Donald Trump staged rallies in Allentown, Lititz and Martinsburg. Melania Trump’s event on Tuesday was moderated by the former White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway.

The president is seeking to make up ground with women, particularly in suburban areas, who have deserted him in droves. At one recent rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump pleaded: “Suburban women, will you please like me? Remember? Hey, please, I saved your damn neighborhood, OK?”

The first lady appeared with her husband at the White House on Sunday, for a Halloween celebration, and on Monday night, for a ceremony marking the conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett’s controversial confirmation to the supreme court.

A previous event for Barrett, on 26 September, has been called a “super-spreader event”, given that coronavirus prevention measures such as mask-wearing and social distancing were not observed and the president, first lady, senior advisers and leading Republicans all fell sick. Melania Trump’s son, Barron, also contracted the virus.

Announcing her recovery, Melania Trump said she had been “very fortunate as my diagnosis came with minimal symptoms, though they hit me all at once and it seemed to be a rollercoaster of symptoms in the days after. I experienced body aches, a cough and headaches, and felt extremely tired most of the time.”

In contrast to her husband, who was hospitalised and received treatment not available to the public, the first lady said she “chose to go a more natural route in terms of medicine, opting more for vitamins and healthy food”.

The Trump administration has been strongly criticised for continuing to stage campaign events with minimal Covid mitigation measures, even as cases surge across the country and as an outbreak was detected among senior aides to Mike Pence, the vice-president.

Pennsylvania is currently seeing rising case numbers, particularly around Philadelphia. More than 8.6m cases have been recorded in the US as a whole, and nearly 226,000 deaths.