Boris Johnson’s Dad, Stanley Johnson, Orders Him To Rest

Boris Johnson “must rest up” after he was moved from intensive care with coronavirus, his father has said.

“He almost took one for the team and we’ve got to make sure we play properly now,” Stanley Johnson told the BBC.

Scientific adviser Prof Neil Ferguson, who was asked about coming out of lockdown, said it would likely “be targeted by age, by geography”.

Meanwhile, the government has launched a campaign urging people to stay at home over the Easter Bank Holiday.

Stanley Johnson spoke of his “relief” and said the whole family was “tremendously grateful” that the prime minister had been moved out of intensive care at St Thomas’ Hospital, adding that he thought his illness had “got the whole country to realise this is a serious event”.

“It does come close to home. It’s certainly made me feel cautious,” he said.

He added that there would have to be a “period of adjustment” before the PM returned to work in Downing Street, saying “he must rest up”.

Prof Ferguson, of Imperial College London, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme 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 come in to end the lockdown, Prof Ferguson said the UK would need 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”.