HOUSTON – Former President George H.W. Bush was in a Houston hospital Thursday for continuing treatment of a lingering cough.

Bush, 88, has been in and out of the hospital recently for complications resulting from bronchitis, Methodist Hospital said in a statement.

The hospital and Bush’s spokesman in Houston, Jim McGrath, described Bush as in stable condition and said they expected the former president to be released by the weekend. He’s been under hospital care for nearly a week.

“If you asked him today, he would tell you he feels good enough to get out this afternoon,” McGrath said Thursday. “But the doctors have a different view. He’s 88, and they’re being extra careful, and understandably so.”

Bush was treated with antibiotics and steroids. The former president’s illness was described as not life-threatening.