Boris Johnson coronavirus: British Prime Minister makes first statement since ICU stay

The British Prime Minister has returned to work today after recovering from a severe case of COVID-19 that landed him in intensive care.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has returned to work today after surviving coronavirus – and immediately faced questions about his next move.

Appearing outside 10 Downing Street in his first public address since he was treated in a London intensive care unit, the PM faced calls to ease lockdown restrictions in order to save the economy.

The UK death toll rose to 20,732 on Sunday – but the increase of 413 in a day was the lowest rise since March.

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Mr Johnson began by apologising for being away from his desk for longer than he’d have liked, thanking Dominic Raab for stepping up.

Amid opposition leaders’ calls for the country’s lockdown measures to be loosened, he went on to say the government should only ease up on the lockdown when it is confident there will be no second peak.

He said he wanted “maximum transparency” about how the decisions to relax restrictions are taken, adding that he wanted to involve the opposition parties as much as possible.

“If this virus were a physical assailant an unexpected and invisible mugger which I can tell you from personal experience it is then this is the moment when we have begun together to wrestle it to the floor,” he said.

“And so it follows that this is the moment of opportunity, this is the moment when we can press home our advantage it is also the moment of maximum risk.”

“Because I know that there will be many people looking now at our apparent success and beginning to wonder whether now is the time to go easy on those social distancing measures and I know how hard and how stressful it has been to give up even temporarily those ancient and basic freedoms not seeing friends, not seeing loved ones working from home, managing the kids worrying about your job and your firm.”

“I know it is tough and I want to get this economy moving as fast as I can but I refuse to throw away all the effort and the sacrifice of the British people and to risk a second major outbreak and huge loss of life and the overwhelming of the NHS and I ask you to contain your impatience because I believe we are coming now to the end of the first phase of this conflict and in spite of all the suffering we have so nearly succeeded.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced media on his first day back at work in Downing Street. Picture: AP Photo.

Mr Johnson was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital on April 5 with a persistent fever and cough.

He was moved to intensive care two days later after his conditions "worsened", and was released three days later.

Mr Johnson released a video on Twitter shortly after his release from hospital, saying it was "hard to find words to express my debt".

"I want to pay my own thanks to the utterly brilliant doctors, leaders in their fields … who took some crucial decisions a few days ago for which I will be grateful for the rest of my life," Mr Johnson said.

"I want to thank the many nurses, men and women, whose care has been so astonishing."

He thanked by name several nurses who had helped him, singling out two in particular who "stood by my bedside for 48 hours when things could have gone either way".

"They are Jenny from New Zealand, Invercargill on the South Island to be exact, and Luis from Portugal, near Porto," Mr Johnson said.

Mr Johnson, 55, was the first world leader of a major power confirmed to have the illness.