UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is ‘responding to treatment’ and remains in a stable condition in the intensive care unit of St Thomas’ Hospital in London, Downing Street has confirmed.

The Prime Minister has now spent two nights in the ICU as a result of his Covid-19 symptoms worsening. He has received oxygen, but not been on a ventilator.

Downing Street said earlier that he remains in the hospital ‘for close monitoring’. Health Minister Edward Argar said earlier today (8 April) that the PM is ‘comfortable, he’s stable, he’s in good spirits’.

Mr Johnson is not currently working, but Downing Street explained he could maintain contact with those he needed to.

At yesterday’s daily coronavirus briefing, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab – who is deputising for the Prime Minister while Johnson battles the virus – said he was ‘confident’ that Johnson would make a full recovery because he is a ‘fighter’.

Raab also explained the Johnson has been receiving standard oxygen treatment, and was breathing with no assistance, but needed to be closely monitored.

He was taken into hospital on Sunday evening with ‘persistent symptoms’ of the Covid-19 virus. Then, he was moved to intensive care on Monday after his symptoms worsened.

Raab said: “All of our thoughts and prayers are with the prime minister at this time, with Carrie, and with his whole family.

“And I’m confident he’ll pull through because if there’s one thing I know about this prime minister, he’s a fighter. And he’ll be back at the helm, leading us through this crisis in short order.”

Raab also said in yesterday’s briefing that he would be standing in for the PM ‘whenever necessary’, but added that he had ‘total confidence’ in the plan Johnson put into place before he had to stop working.

He explained: “Well first of all, decision making by government is made by collective cabinet responsibility, so that is the same as before.

“But we’ve got very clear directions, very clear instructions from the Prime Minister, and we’re focused with total unity and total resolve on implementing them so that when he’s back, I hope in very short order, we will have made the progress that he would expect and that the country would expect.”

As for the proposed review of the lockdown that was due to take place on Monday, Argar told that the peak of infection must be reached before relaxations can be discussed.

He said: “We need to start seeing the numbers coming down and that’s when you’re in the negative.

“That’s when you have a sense when that’s sustained over a period of time, that you can see it coming out of that. We’re not there yet and I don’t exactly know when we will be.”