US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin returned to work at the Pentagon for the first time in almost a month, as he continues to recover from complications linked to prostate-cancer surgery that left him hospitalized for two weeks and provoked a furor over delays in declaring his illness.

Austin had been working from home since he was released from the hospital on Jan. 15 and has been “actively engaged with multiple leaders to include the White House, with the US Central Command, with the chairman of joint chiefs, and of course maintains regular contact with Congress on a variety of issues,” Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder told Bloomberg Television Monday.