Boris Johnson receiving oxygen treatment for coronavirus in intensive care

Boris Johnson continues to receive oxygen treatment in intensive care as caretaker leader admits the serious illness as been a shock to cabinet.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Picture: AFP

Boris Johnson remains in a stable condition in intensive care and is receiving oxygen treatment for coronavirus as caretaker leader Dominic Raab made optimistic claims the prime minister would be “back leading us in very short order”.

In a touching address on Tuesday evening, Mr Raab, the foreign secretary, said it was worth remembering that Mr Johnson’s serious illness — the first to a serving prime minister in more than a generation — has been a shock to those in cabinet as well as across the country.

Britain’s caretaker PM, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, speaks during an overnight press conference. Picture: 10 Downing Street

“He is not just the PM, he is not just a boss, he is also a colleague and is also our friend; all our thoughts with (Mr Johnson’s fiancee) Carrie and his whole family,” Mr Raab said.

“I’m confident he will pull through because if there is one thing I know of this prime minister, he is a fighter, he will back at the helm leading us through this crisis in very short order.”

The Queen has sent Mr Johnson and Ms Symonds her very best wishes.

Mr Johnson is not on a ventilator and is breathing on his own, but his admission to intensive care on Monday night, 11 days after first contracting the virus, indicates that he may be in hospitalised for many days yet. If the virus gets into the lungs, coronavirus patients are usually in hospital for at least 10 days. If his condition worsens further and he is intubated, the odds of Mr Johnson pulling through plummets to around 50 per cent.

“He remained stable overnight, he’s receiving standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any assistance. He has not required mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support,” Mr Raab said.

He indicated that Mr Johnson had left very detailed and clear instructions about how to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, but it has become obvious that without Mr Johnson’s guidance, the Cabinet appears disjointed.

Another high profile cabinet member, Michael Gove, is in self-isolation as a family member has symptoms of the virus.

Mr Johnson had reassured the country that the lockdown measures would be reviewed at the end of Easter and that 100,000 tests would be implemented by the end of the month — both of which now appear to be merely aspirational.

5/5 - Global comparison of deaths due to #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/dPw7ua1ocK

— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) April 7, 2020

Mr Raab said in the daily press conference that the Cabinet was calm and determined to defeat the coronavirus and said they were following scientific and medical advice and very deliberately taking the right steps at the right moment.

However Mr Raab failed to elucidate what those steps might be, beyond saying the country hadn’t yet reached the peak. He also ducked questions about the chain of command and his authority, saying that decisions would be made by Cabinet, under collective responsibility.

The chief scientific officer Sir Patrick Vallance said he expected to see the UK death rates coming down in two or three weeks and the country was on track to flatten the curve after home isolation was imposed on March 23.

On Tuesday there were 786 deaths, bringing the total deaths to 6159, but the numbers of new coronavirus cases continued to decline.

“There is not that big upswing … it is possible we are being the beginning of change, the curve flattening a bit … we are not seeing an acceleration,” Sir Patrick said.

Information released by the Office of National Statistics has shown that the numbers of deaths in the United Kingdom this year was below the five-year average.

However in the past week an extra 1011 people died above the average for this time of the year.

Up to March 27, 150,047 people died in England and Wales, of which 647 deaths, or 0.4 per cent, involved coronavirus. However by April 1 there were about another 1000 deaths believed caused by coronavirus and last week’s figures showed that 4.8 per cent of all deaths mentioned coronavirus on the death certificate.

Mr Raab explained that government ministers and Mr Johnson had contracted coronavirus because it was contagious and did not discriminate.

“We follow the guidance as carefully as possible, it’s a dangerous virus and very contagious,” Mr Raab said.