UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is deputising for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson while he is in intensive care with coronavirus, said the UK PM is a fighter who will pull through the illness and be back in charge soon.
During the daily Downing Street briefing on Tuesday evening, the senior Cabinet minister confirmed that Johnson, 55, remains stable in ICU at St Thomas' Hospital in London and has not required the help of a ventilator for his breathing.
"I'm confident that he'll pull through because if there's one thing I know, he's a fighter. He'll be back at the helm leading us through this crisis in short order," said Raab.
Striking a personal note, he said: "He's not just our boss, he's also our colleague and our friend. All of our thoughts with the Prime Minister and his family."
"But we've got very clear directions, very clear instructions from the Prime Minister, and we're focused with total unity and total resolve on implementing them so that when he's back, I hope in very short order, we will have made the progress that he would expect and that the country would expect."
"We will keep all of our focus and all of our resolve, with calm determination, on delivering the government's plan to defeat the coronavirus."