Boris Johnson “must rest up” after he was moved from intensive care with coronavirus, his father has said.
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“He almost took one for the team and we’ve got to make sure we play properly now,” Stanley Johnson told the BBC.
Downing Street said the PM waved his thanks to staff at St Thomas’ Hospital in London as he was moved on Thursday.
Meanwhile, scientific adviser Prof Neil Ferguson, who was asked about coming out of lockdown, said it would likely “be targeted by age, by geography”.
A spokesman for No 10 said the prime minister was back on a ward and “in very good spirits”, emphasising that Mr Johnson was at an “early stage” of his recovery from coronavirus.
NHS England has announced 866 more people have died in England after testing positive for coronavirus, and separate figures show there have been 48 more in Scotland, 29 more in Wales and 10 more in Northern Ireland.
Earlier, Stanley Johnson spoke of his “relief” that his son had begun his recovery, adding that he thought his illness had “got the whole country to realise this is a serious event.”
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that there would have to be a “period of adjustment” before the PM returned to work in Downing Street.
Prof Ferguson, of Imperial College London, told Today that work to end the coronavirus lockdown in the UK was the “number one topic and priority” both in the scientific community and in government. “Every waking minute, as it were,” he said.
Speaking about what measures might be needed to end the lockdown, Prof Ferguson said the UK would have to introduce larger levels of testing at community level “to isolate cases more effectively.”
However, he suggested the lockdown would have to remain in place for “several more weeks.”
