U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson in ‘Stable’ Condition After Intensive Care Stay

By Manori Ravindran

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is said to be in stable condition and in “good spirits” after a night in intensive care, where he is being treated for coronavirus.

Johnson was admitted to the ICU at St. Thomas’s Hospital in London on Monday night at 7 p.m. local time, having first entered the hospital for precautionary testing on Sunday night. The ICU move was to allow Johnson to be closer to a ventilator if necessary.

A Downing Street spokesperson said Tuesday afternoon: “The Prime Minister has been stable overnight and remains in good spirits. He is receiving standard oxygen treatment and is breathing without any other assistance. He has not required mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support.”

The 55-year-old Johnson — who is the first major world leader to have revealed a coronavirus diagnosis — does not have pneumonia, according to the BBC.

Buckingham Palace revealed that Queen Elizabeth sent a message early Tuesday to Johnson and his partner Carrie Symonds, who is pregnant with the couple’s first child, saying they were in her thoughts and wishing Johnson a speedy recovery.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been standing in for the prime minister since Monday night, and is believed to have again chaired the government’s morning meeting Tuesday.

It was first revealed that Johnson had coronavirus on March 27, and though he has been working from his residence, a persisting cough and fever prompted his admission to hospital on Sunday.

However, Johnson took to Twitter on Monday to update that he was in “good spirits” and keeping in touch with his team, which rendered the ICU development later in the day a shock to the nation.

The U.K. has been hard hit by the coronavirus outbreak, which has so far claimed 5,373 lives. There are 51,608 cases of COVID-19 to date, with numbers steadily rising each day.

Unlike other countries that were quick to implement precautionary measures such as gatherings bans and lockdowns, Johnson’s government was slow to act on such public health safeguards in the U.K. and has struggled in recent weeks to convey the seriousness of the pandemic to the public.

It is thought that the prime minister’s hospitalization and intensive care stay will go some distance in demonstrating the severity of the virus.