UK PM Johnson stable after second night in intensive care battling COVID-19

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent a second night in intensive care and was in a stable condition on Wednesday after receiving oxygen support for COVID-19 complications while his foreign minister directs the battle against the outbreak.

Johnson, who tested positive nearly two weeks ago, was taken to St Thomas' hospital on Sunday evening as he had a persistent high temperature and cough but his condition deteriorated on Monday and he was rushed into an intensive care unit. The 55-year-old British leader received oxygen support but was not put on a ventilator and his designated deputy, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, said he would soon be back at the helm as the world faces its gravest public health crisis in a century.

"He is comfortable, he's stable, he's in good spirits," Edward Argar, a junior health minister, said on Wednesday. "While he's had oxygen, he hasn't been on a ventilator. As Johnson battled the novel coronavirus in hospital, the United Kingdom was entering what scientists said was the deadliest phase of the outbreak and grappling with the question of when to lift the lockdown.

Inside the government, ministers were debating how long the world's fifth-largest economy could afford to be shut down, and the long-term implications of one of the most stringent sets of emergency controls in peacetime history. The United Kingdom's total hospital deaths from COVID-19 rose by a record 786 to 6,159 as of 1600 GMT on April 6, the latest publicly available death toll, though just 213,181 people out of the population of around 68 million have been tested.

Britain was in no position to lift the shutdown as the peak of the outbreak was still over a week away, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said. "We are nowhere near lifting the lockdown," Khan said.

ACTING PM RAAB? Johnson was breathing without any assistance and had not required respiratory support, said Raab, who insisted that Johnson remained the boss.

There are few precedents in British history of a prime minister being incapacitated at a time of major crisis, though Winston Churchill suffered a stroke while in office in 1953 and Tony Blair twice underwent heart treatment in the 2000s. Johnson has delegated some authority to Raab, who was appointed foreign minister less than a year ago, though any major decisions - such as when to lift the lockdown - would in effect need the blessing of Johnson's cabinet.

"He’s a fighter, and he’ll be back at the helm leading us through this crisis in short order," Raab said on Tuesday. "His team will not blink, and we will not flinch from the task at hand at this crucial moment." Britain's uncodified constitution - an unwieldy collection of sometimes ancient and contradictory precedents - offers no clear, formal "Plan B". In essence, it is the prime minister's call and, if he is incapacitated, then up to cabinet to decide.

Finance minister Rishi Sunak, a 39-year old former Goldman Sachs banker, would deputize should Raab become incapacitated.

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