The headlines here, the Prime Minister borisjohnson has been moved to intensive care after his coronavirus symptoms worsened. He was admitted to St Thomas Hospital in london for some tests after doctors said his symptoms were persisting. On social media, the Prime Minister said that he was in good spirits. President trump has joined political leaders in the uk and around the world in wishing borisjohnson a speedy recovery. Mr trump said the Prime Minister was strong, resolute, doesnt quit and doesnt give up. He added that americans are all praying for his recovery. In the us, more than 10,000 people have now died from coronavirus as the country braces for the most difficult week of the outbreak so far. There are more than 360,000 confirmed cases. 0nly italy and spain have higher death tolls. More now on borisjohnson Bronwen Maddox is the director of the institute for government. She has more details on how foreign secretary dominic raab will deputise where necessary for borisjohnson. I think its a careful ambiguity, if you like. Its not handing over absolutely every bit of power and saying that the Prime Minister is com pletely saying that the Prime Minister is completely incapacitated, but its clearly delegating a great area of responsibility to him. Its useful ambiguity, if you like. At one point 1. I ambiguity, if you like. At one point i. I would also make come up with some of the Big Decisions have been taken by some of the Big Decisions have been ta ken by boris some of the Big Decisions have been taken by Boris Johnson, some of the Big Decisions have been taken by borisjohnson, that this is happening at a point that Boris Johnson was able to make the decision about the locked and explained that people should stay at home and was able to endorse the giant economic bailout as chancellor that his chance or put together, had his deputy, if you like, been trying to make those decisions right now, i think he would be in a much more difficult place. But there is still lots of smaller decisions to
be taken in the next week or two about how to get all of this stuff done. Does dominic raab come as far as you can tell, get the chancellor have all the Prime Ministers powers if he so needs, if there is a moment of national, even Greater National crisis, which requires an instant decision, what dominic raab have the authority to take that decision . Welcome to the uks governed by the cabinet, and the Prime Minister is the first among equals in the cabinet. The cabinet would be taking those decisions, dominic raab has had the authority delegated by the Prime Minister, but the cabinet would have to come to a collective decision on that. He would have to persuade them. And its really a matter for the cabinet of whether he could have his essay over all of it. Now, i think in the circumstances but cabinet will absolutely pull together on these things. He is not a president. The Prime Minister isnt a president. So it isnt as if dominic raab can go in and to
unilaterally make all of his own bowel. I wonder if you can think back into british history, has there ever been a time where there has been a Prime Minister who has been seriously unwell, and a stand and Prime Minister, and a sharing of duties between the two . Well, its the sharing that is the difficult point to get out. There have been moments in british history, and one people i talk about quite a bit is when harold in 1963 felt he was very unwell. I think there is some evidence that he knew the cancer that he was being operated on was in fa ct that he was being operated on was in fact benign, but chose it as a movement to stand down. Partly because it was so unclear where the power should flow to, the conservative party developed rules of succession, if you like, after that. The sharing of power. Well, it happens in everyday ways, in essence, Prime Minister goes on
holiday, you know. Has to be away ata summit holiday, you know. Has to be away at a summit or something and delegate the power to take Prime Ministers questions or to do some other smaller things, but its unusual to delegate the day to day running of the government entirely to someone else. We have seen tonight at downing street, that the queen is being consulted. Is there a constitutional role for the queen to play in this . She recognises who the Prime Minister is, and if there is any suggestion of needing you know, if borisjohnson was any suggestion of needing you know, if Boris Johnson was going to be incapacitated for some time, there would be discussions about how to. Whether the conservative party and the cabinet ought to talk about another Prime Minister, but i think its a bit early to get into that kind of discussion. Jonathan powell served
as tony blairs chief of staff from 1997 2007. He explained how a government would deal with this kind of situation . It certainly did not when i was in government tony blair had to go into a hospital twice for Health Operations and both times we managed to carry on the government. Luckily, each time he was only in hospitalfor 2a hours, he was under general anaesthetic, and we had to think about things like the nuclear button, what happens when you dont have a Prime Minister in place. And there will be people in downing street, the private secretaries, advisers, worrying about that at the moment. Can all of the Prime Ministers powers it simply be transferred to someone the Prime Minister nominates, in this case, dominic raab . Yes, we dont have a president ial system so you dont have succession, the president , Vice President , speaker of the house. Instead, we have a system based on a majority. Whoever commands a majority in the house is the Prime Minister. So, the Prime Minister cannot
nominate the next person. Assuming that person has the support of the cabinets, and that his parliamentary party, then he can be Prime Minister, thats the way it works. Jonathan powell. Dr Carl Waldmann is a consultant in intensive care medicine. He explained the process by which patients are admitted to icu. What happens is they come to intensive care either because they are deteriorating, so we can put them under close observation in case we have to escalate to organ support, that means they are in the right place at the right time encase intervention is necessary. Thats the first thing to say. If they do show signs of deterioration, we give them oxygen via what we call a cpap mask, Continuous Positive Airway pressure. The mask very similar to what pilots use when they fly very high in an unpressurized cabin stop and if they dont improve, they would be sedated so if they can go to a ventilator. That would be the start
of their treatment. What are the particular difficult as you found when facing covid 19 . There have been many because we have had to change the way we work. The normal way of working in intensive care is have one nurse per patient. We have doctors where we may have one doctor for eight patients, so we have a whole range of doctors. We also have allied health professionals, which include physiotherapists, which help with our patients. We are dealing with larger and larger numbers. We have had to train a lot of people with a lot of specialities to come and help us and i have to say its been very impressive the way these others have come and help on intensive care. Its a different way of working but i have to say, im very grateful to all the staff who have come and mucked in and were able to provide a much better service. We who are not doctors, who are not scientists, noted Boris Johnson,
matt hancock, said they had symptoms at the same time. Why has this virus struck different people at different depths . We dont know. Most people, they get better. They either get better in their home or either after a short time in hospital, where they may have gotten better after a visit to icu. A few of them do deteriorate quite rapidly. Were learning all the time how treat them. We dont know why it is some of them deteriorate and some get better very quickly, but we are learning, and the problem is when they do deteriorate very quickly, the conventional treatment we give with pneumonia dont seem to be effective in all the patients. So, its something that all of us are learning. We have these webinars so we can work with other doctors and other countries so we can learn
what is working what is not working. It is a fluid time. Intensive care is one of this specialities where every patient is different, but everyone can be assured everyone is doing their best. I would say intensive care in the United Kingdom is one of the best training schemes, highly trained doctors, highly trained nurses and highly trained allied care professionals. Everyone is working all hours to ensure the best treatment that we can. 0ur News Reporter rich preston is here with me. Politicians around the world have been reacting. Thats right. Since the news came through, President Trump and his Coronavirus Press briefing said that americans are praying for Boris Johnson. Briefing said that americans are praying for borisjohnson. Hes briefing said that americans are praying for Boris Johnson. Hes a good friend of the American People come as a man who doesnt quit, doesnt give up, on twitter, re she
soon asked, the british chancellor of the exchequer, and of course the man who lives next door. Rishi. Mac rishi. I know he will be getting the best care possible and will come out of this even stronger. The canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau sends his best wishes to Boris Johnson. Trudeau sends his best wishes to borisjohnson. The trudeau sends his best wishes to Boris Johnson. The president trudeau sends his best wishes to borisjohnson. The president of that you commission says. Her thoughts are with the per minister and herfamily thoughts are with the per minister and her family this evening to see in english and a full and speedy recovery. Michel barnier wishing borisjohnson all the recovery. Michel barnier wishing Boris Johnson all the best. Recovery. Michel barnier wishing borisjohnson all the best. The french president , manual macron, all my support to Boris Johnson, his family and the british people at difficult moment. With social media, my thoughts are with the preminger and his family. The spanish Prime Minister, pedro sanchez, similar sentiments. As you sayjames, thoughts and wishes from around the world. We have also had the
opposition, labour leader to make your starmer, asking people to pray. We had sadiq khan, the mayor of london. It does remind people of when Ronald Reagan was shot in 1980, and he was wondering whether his surgeons where republicans and someone said today we are all republicans. Look you should get that sense of that International Spirit on an occasion like this. Lets look at another aspect of this story. That hes been taken to intensive care, if youve been able to do some reading, can you take through what that means. Intensive ca re through what that means. Intensive care is for the sickest of patients. There is no getting around that. Its for the sickest people. Downing street is stressing that this is a precautionary measures taken on the advice of borisjohnson medical team after his symptoms of coronavirus got worse, and his condition deteriorated. Theres been some speculation about whether this means hes ona speculation about whether this means hes on a ventilator, we have heard so much about ventilators. The thing we do know about coronavirus is that the attacks are in the respiratory
system, and ventilators really are the machines that do your breathing for you. They are kind of the last line of defence whilst your body tries to fight off the virus. Because, of course, no cure. So a ventilators machine that takes over your breathing, while your own body fights off the virus. He is not been put on a ventilator as far as we are aware, that is something that can be donein aware, that is something that can be done in intensive care, and the person needs to be sedated for that. But we do know that he was taken to hospital and oxygen, and that was probably to support them into give him the oxygen he needs to give him the strength he needs to get through this, and various other different breathing supports can be given in intensive care as well. So looked at the reaction. Weve explained the health, lets quickly look at the politics. Dominic raab, the first secretary of state, the foreign secretary of state, the foreign secretary will be taking decisions as necessary. He is a figure who is reasonably well known in britain, but perhaps not a household name yet. Absolutely. As you say, the important thing about british politics is that this is not a
president ial system. There is not a clear chain of command, so dominic raab has been deputized to act for borisjohnson, raab has been deputized to act for Boris Johnson, and the raab has been deputized to act for borisjohnson, and the worst we are told, as necessary, borisjohnson is still remains Prime Minister and there are various district systems in place for a different cabinet ministers to take up different roles as well. And we have been told also that the queen has been informed. Thank you very much for keeping us up to date. Spain has registered its lowest number of deaths from coronavirus for two weeks, continuing a recent trend which suggests the spread of the virus is stabilising. With over 130,000 infections, spain has more cases than any other country in the world except for the united states. Guy hedgecoe reports from madrid. Good news, as another patient is discharged from hospital, having recovered from covid 19. Spain has reported just under 640 deaths from coronavirus over the last 2a hours, a marked improvement on just a few days ago, when over 900 deaths
were being reported daily. The number of new infections has also been easing off in recent days, and the government says the virus spread is now coming under control. Translation more than 40,000 people have already been discharged, and this already represents almost 30 of the reported cases. The government believes that measures that were introduced just over three weeks ago, tightly restricting spaniards movement, are paying off. This week, the Prime Minister, pedro sanchez, hopes to gain parliamentary backing to extend the National Lockdown at least until late april. But although the figures are improving, there there is still enormous pressure on the health service. Around 20,000 doctors and nurses have been infected, and tonnes of Medical Equipment has been shipped into spain since the crisis began. In madrid, the epicentre
of spains outbreak, the situation appears to be improving. But in the Northeastern Region of catalonia, hospitals are struggling to keep up with demand. In this restaurant in barcelona, chefs prepare food not for customers waiting at tables, but to be delivered for free to Health Care Workers who are still on the front line of the battle against coronavirus. Guy hedgecoe, bbc news, madrid. Its now a fortnight since Boris Johnson announced the lockdown in the uk and there are some signs that the rate of infection could be starting to reduce. While the number of people dying in hospital from the effects of coronavirus has been doubling every few days the figures for confirmed cases and hospitalisations are coming down. So is the peak of the virus in sight and if it is what does that mean for our day to day lives . 0ur science editor David Shukman reports. A village outside rome, hit hard by the virus,
and now isolated by the army. Turned into a human laboratory, everyone is getting screened. Drastic action in a country where the daily death toll is at last dropping. In spain, as well, which are seen terrible losses, for four days in a row the number dying has fallen, a sign that the strategy of locking down may be working. So, when might the uk see a peak in the outbreak . The working assumption is that ought to happen in about 7 10 days time, but its very difficult to predict, partly because it takes so long for measures like social distancing to have an impact on the numbers dying. From the moment of infection, five days might pass before it starts to show, with the common symptoms of fever and coughing and of breathlessness. It could be 16 days before intensive care is needed by the most severe cases. And sometime after 23 days, patients will