Boris stable but Number 10 refuse to comment on 'temperature drop' - update
BORIS JOHNSON remains in a stable condition and is responding to treatment but remains in intensive care, No 10 has confirmed today.
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Downing Street released the latest update on the Prime Minister's health today where it was revealed he is breathing for himself and does not need a ventilation unit. No reference has been reported on whether the Prime Minister's temperature had now fallen as was speculated earlier today. The spokesman said: "The Prime Minister remains clinically stable and is responding to treatment.
"He continues to be cared for in the intensive care unit at St Thomas' hospital. He is in good spirits.
"The Prime Minister is not working, he's in intensive care, he has the ability to contact those that he needs to, he's following the advice of his doctors at all times."
The spokesman also confirmed Mr Johnson was grateful for the support he had received from the public.
The Prime Minister spent the second night in intensive care on Tuesday after being transferred to St Thomas' Hospital at the weekend.
With his health worsening, Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab has become interim Prime Minister.
Despite, Mr Johnson being in intensive care, a No 10 confirmed he was in good spirits.
On Wednesday morning, Health Minister Edward Argar confirmed Mr Johnson had not been given a ventilator.
He said: "He is comfortable, he's stable, he's in good spirits.
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"While he's had oxygen, he hasn't been on a ventilator."
Amid the rise in deaths and Mr Johnson's condition, No 10 has speculated the review into whether lockdown measures could be relaxed will not go ahead next Monday.
Mr Johnson had issued a three-week for it to be reviewed, but Mr Raab insisted the UK could not ease off just yet.
During the No 10 press briefing on Tuesday, he did admit the measures were beginning to work but that it was not time to shift focus.
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Speaking today, Health Minister Edward Argar 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.
"If we are, as the statistics appear to show, making a little bit of progress, now's the time to hold to it."
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In tandem, the UK's chief medical adviser, professor Chris Whitty said the UK must reach its peak before measures are relaxed.
"The key thing is to get to the point where we are confident we have reached the peak, and that this is now beyond the peak.
"At that point, I think it will be possible to have a serious discussion about all the things we need to do, step by step, to move to the next phase of managing this."
At the time of writing, there have been a recorded 55,242 cases of COVID-19 in the UK.
There have also been 6,159 deaths.