LONDON, April 7 - Boris Johnson spent Monday night in the intensive care unit (ICU) at a London hospital in a move Downing Street said was a �precaution� should the British Prime Minister require ventilation to aid his recovery from the COVID-19.
Johnson, 55, was taken to St Thomas� Hospital in London, a specialist infectious diseases National Health Service (NHS) facility, on Sunday night for �routine tests� after persistent coronavirus symptoms, including a high temperature and a cough.
His condition �worsened� during the course of Monday when his doctors decided to shift him to the ICU.
�The Prime Minister is not on a ventilator. He has received oxygen support and one of the reasons of being in intensive care is to ensure that whatever support the medical team consider to be appropriate can be provided,� said UK Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove on Tuesday morning.
Johnson had tested positive for coronavirus 12 days ago and had continued to lead the government�s response to the coronavirus pandemic via video conferencing from his Downing Street home.
On Monday night, he asked his First Secretary of State, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, to step in for him and the minister will be chairing his second daily COVID-19 meeting in place of the UK PM on Tuesday.
The government�s business will continue. The Prime Minister is in safe hands with that brilliant team at St. Thomas� hospital, and the focus of the government will continue to be on making sure that the Prime Minister�s direction, all the plans for making sure that we can defeat coronavirus and can pull the country through this challenge, will be taken forward, said Raab.
Raab said he would be deputising for Johnson while he is in hospital. � PTI