UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson Has Been Moved To The ICU

Johnson is said to be conscious, but was moved in case he needs a ventilator.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been moved to the intensive care unit after his symptoms worsened Monday (April 6), the government said in a statement.

The prime minister is reportedly conscious, but doctors moved him into the ICU as a precaution in case he ends up needing a ventilator to breathe, The Washington Post reported.

Johnson, 55, had been admitted to St. Thomas', a National Health Service hospital, last night, as a precautionary step, because he still had coronavirus symptoms even though 10 days had passed since he was first diagnosed, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said during a press briefing today.

A statement from the British government indicated that Johnson had asked Raab "to deputize for him where necessary," the Post reported.

Though doctors and scientists still have a lot to learn about this virus and its progression, one study of 138 COVID-19 patients in Wuhan, China, where the outbreak began, suggests that the median time from onset of symptoms to being admitted to the ICU was 10 days, the researchers wrote Feb. 7 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

More than 51,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the U.K., with more than 5,300 related deaths.

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