Boris Johnson 'comfortable' and not on ventilator as UK warned next week is 'too early' to relax lockdown

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Joe Murphy @JoeMurphyLondon|Nicholas Cecil, Political Editor @nicholascecil|Ross Lydall @RossLydall|Harriet Brewis @HattieBrewis

8 April 2020

Boris Johnson is fighting on and is “comfortable and in good spirits” after a second night in intensive care, a minister revealed today.

With millions of people around the world anxiously awaiting news, Health Minister Edward Argar said the “latest information” was that the Prime Minister, left, was in a stable condition.

“He’s comfortable and in good spirits,” he told Good Morning Britain.

“Although he had oxygen when he was admitted, he hasn’t needed mechanical ventilation. And I think, judging by the emails I’m getting from around the country and indeed right across the political spectrum, the message is everybody sends him and Carrie their very best wishes and wishes him a very full and very speedy recovery.”

There was no comment from official government sources after a report that Mr Johnson’s temperature came down yesterday while being treated at St Thomas’ hospital, near Westminster, where he was admitted on Sunday night, before being moved into the ICU on Monday evening when his condition deteriorated.

Hopes that the lockdown restrictions in the UK may be eased next week were dashed by senior medical, scientific and political figures this morning.

Mr Argar appeared to rule out a relaxation of the rules next week, when he told Sky: “Now is not the time to let up.”

Mr Argar said ministers will wait for scientific advice that the time was right.

The World Health Organisation coronavirus special envoy for Europe Dr David Nabarro was clear that the “stay at home” message must be kept up.

He told LBC radio that, before any relaxation, communities must be able to respond quickly to isolate new cases to stop outbreaks escalating, there must be respect for physical distancing in workplaces plus spare capacity in the NHS.

“If you get three things in place, then you can start looking at releasing the lockdown,” he said. “But you can’t release the lockdown before all the defences are in place.”

Dr Katherine Henderson, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine and a St Thomas’ Hospital consultant, said it was “really unlikely” that the lockdown will be lifted on Monday, which would be the end of the three-week review period announced by Mr Johnson when it started.

“It will all be based on science but I think it is unlikely that that is going to happen,” she told Sky News. “We are seeing the wave of infections moving across the country, we need people to help break the transmission ... so staying at home.”

Lockdown London

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Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who has called for tighter restrictions on working, was the most emphatic of all, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We are nowhere lifting the lockdown.”

A hard-hitting report at the European Commission said lockdowns in European capitals must continue or there would be a renewed outbreak that would overwhelm hospitals.

“Any level of relaxation of the confinement will unavoidably lead to an increase in new cases,” warned a draft of the report.

Dr Bruce Aylward, senior adviser to the WHO director-general, said “the key to stopping this” is not through lockdowns, but through testing, isolation and contact tracing, adding: “We are in the middle of a war, here — a very, very serious war that we are only beginning to understand.”

In key developments:

Mr Khan said the peak in London was now expected in seven to 10 days’ time. Official figures yesterday showed the capital suffered its highest daily hospital death toll, up by 224 deaths to a total of 1,706. NHS Nightingale hospital, at the ExCeL centre, received its first patients yesterday.
The number of London public transport workers who have died with coronavirus rose from eight to 14 today. Transport for London said it would trial using middle doors and new screens to protect bus drivers, the most vulnerable group, from infection.
Donald Trump revealed that the UK “desperately” called the US with an urgent plea for 200 ventilators, as ministers seek to scramble to boost capacity for the sickest of patients. The US President said: “We’re going to work it out, we’ve got to work it out. They’ve been great partners.”
Seven residents have died at care home for the elderly in east London, where 21 other people are ill with possible Covid-19 symptoms. Chief medical officer Chris Whitty last night warned deaths in care homes “will go up”.
The latest analysis of data from the Covid Symptom Tracker app, used by more than 2 million people in the UK, shows the rate of new symptoms being reported nationally has slowed down significantly in the past few days. It is estimated that 1.4 million Britons aged 20-69 have symptomatic Covid-19, a fall from 1.9 million on the April 1, according to experts at King’s College London.

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Boris Johnson 'comfortable' and not on ventilator as UK warned next week is 'too early' to relax lockdown

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