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A4 | NEWS OTHEGLOBEANDMAIL | WEDNESDAY,APRIL8,

British Prime Minister Boris John-
son is expected to remain in in-
tensive care at a London hospital
for several days, leaving the coun-
try effectively leaderless as the
number of COVID-19 cases there
has surpassed 55,000.
Mr. Johnson, 55, was moved to
the intensive-care unit of St Tho-
mas’ Hospital Monday, almost
two weeks after he tested positive
for the virus and became ill.
Downing Street officials said
Tuesday that he was in stable con-
dition and “good spirits.” He has
been receiving oxygen treatment,
but had not been put on a ventila-
tor, they added.
The government’s COVID-
ICU statistics indicate a sobering
54-per-cent survival rate for those
in Mr. Johnson’s age group.
Mr. Johnson’s absence has left
a vacuum at the heart of the gov-
ernment, which has already seen
several senior advisers and an-
other cabinet minister, Michael
Gove, forced into self-isolation.
Mr. Johnson has selected Foreign
Secretary Dominic Raab to take
over some prime ministerial du-
ties, but Mr. Raab’s power appears
to be limited.
He ducked questions Tuesday
about whether he was fully in
charge or if he would be making
major decisions. “Decision mak-
ing by government is made by
collective cabinet responsibility,

so that is the same as before,” Mr.

Raab said during a news confer-

ence. “We’ve got very clear direc-

tions, very clear instructions from

the Prime Minister and we’re fo-

cused with total unity and total

resolve on implementing them.”

He added that he was confi-

dent Mr. Johnson would return to

work “in short order.”

The lack of clear oversight

threatens tohobble thegovern-

ment as it faces some major chal-

lenges and big decisions about

how to handle the pandemic. The

number of confirmed cases in Bri-

tain reached 55,242 Tuesday, and

the death toll hit 6,159. Both fig-

ures have been showing signs of

levelling off recently, but health

officials said they don’t expect

the outbreak to peak for another

week.

Pressure has been building to

increase the amount of testing

and to provide more protective

gear for hospital staff. Health

Minister Matt Hancock has prom-

ised to carry out 100,000 tests a

day by the end of the month; as of

Tuesday, the figure stood at just

14,000. Mr. Raab said the target

still stood, but he deflected ques-

tions about whether he would

take responsibility for ensuring it

was met.

He and other ministers will al-

so have to decide whether to ex-

tend the near-total lockdown of

the country that Mr. Johnson im-

posed two weeks ago to help stop

the spread of the virus. At the

time, Mr. Johnson said the mea-

sure would be reviewed in three

weeks. On Tuesday, Mr. Raab de-

clined to say if the lockdown

would be extended or eased. He

said it was too early to assess

whether the restrictions had suf-

ficiently helped reduce the num-

ber of new cases.

The lack of certainty over who

is running the country stems

from the fact that Britain does

not have a deputy prime minister

or a clear line of succession. Alex

Thomas, a program director at

the Institute for Government,

said Mr. Johnson could have dep-

utized another minister but he

“clearly decided that [Mr. Raab]

was the right person to do it to

avoid having a row between any-

body else.”

Mr. Thomas added that while

the Prime Minister doesn’t run

day-to-day government oper-

ations, he does set the overall

strategy and make critical deci-

sions.

It is also unclear what happens

if Mr. Johnson dies. Cabinet

would have to select a new prime

minister, who would have to be

approved by the Queen. The Con-

servative Party would then have

to decide whether to hold a lead-

ership race. Whoever won that

contest would take over as party

leader and prime minister, on ap-

proval of the Queen. How long a

new prime minister could remain

in office without calling an elec-

tion isn’t clear. The Conservatives

won a large majority in December

and another election isn’t due un-

til 2024.

“The British way certainly has

not been to describe a particular

process about how to deal with all

these situations,” Mr. Thomas

said. “It leaves space for politics to

happen.”

If Mr. Johnson is laid up in in-

tensive care for a while it’s be-

cause he is seriously ill. The ICU

has been reserved for only the

most advanced cases of CO-

VID-19, which affects the respira-

tory system. Patients often re-

quire mechanical ventilation to

help pump oxygen into the

bloodstream. And the survival

rate is not encouraging.

A report dated April 3 by Bri-

tain’s Intensive Care National Au-

dit and Research Centre found

that of the 2,249 patients with CO-

VID-19 admitted to intensive care,

346 died and 344 “were dis-

charged alive from critical care.”

The remainder were still in criti-

cal care. Those in Mr. Johnson’s

age group – 50 to 69 – fared slight-

ly better than the whole group:

142 died and 168 were discharged.

Johnsoninstablecondition,‘goodspirits’inICU

AwomaninLondondisplaysasignofsolidarityTuesdayforBritishPrimeMinisterBorisJohnson,whowas

placedinintensivecareonMondayashisCOVID-19symptomspersisted.Mr.JohnsonselectedForeign

SecretaryDominicRaabtoassumesomeofhisprimeministerialdutiesduringhisabsence.ALBERTOPEZZALI/AP

BritishPMcontinues

recoveryatLondon

hospitalassudden

absenceleavesvacuum

ingovernment

PAULWALDIE
EUROPECORRESPONDENT
LONDON

New York’s death toll from the
coronavirus rose past 3,200 on
Tuesday, eclipsing the number
killed at the World Trade Center
on 9/11. In Britain, Prime Minister
Boris Johnson lay in intensive
care, believed to be the first ma-
jor world leader hospitalized
with the virus.
The twin developments came
even as the crisis seemed to be
easing or at least stabilizing, by
some measures, in New York and
parts of Europe, although health
officials warned people at nearly
every turn not to let their guard
down. After 76 days, China finally
lifted the lockdown on Wuhan,
the city of 11 million where the
outbreak began.
At least 3,202 people have died
in New York from COVID-19, the

city reported. The deadliest terror

attack on U.S. soil killed 2,

people in the city and 2,977 over-

all, when hijacked planes

slammed into the twin towers,

the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania

field on Sept. 11, 2001.

New York state recorded 731

new coronavirus deaths, its big-

gest one-day jump yet, for a state-

wide toll of nearly 5,500, Gover-

nor Andrew Cuomo said.

“A lot of pain again today for

many New Yorkers,” he said.

But in an encouraging sign, the

governor said hospital admis-

sions and the number of those re-

ceiving breathing tubes are drop-

ping, indicating that measures

taken to force people to keep

their distance from one another

are succeeding.

And alarming as the one-day

increase in deaths might sound,

the governor said that’s a “lag-

ging indicator,” reflecting people

who had been hospitalized be-

fore this week. Over the past sev-

eral days, in fact, the number of

deaths in New York appeared to

be levelling off.

“You see that plateauing –

that’s because of what we are do-

ing. If we don’t do what we are

doing, that is a much different

curve,” Mr. Cuomo said. “So

social distancing is working.”

Still, six-foot social distancing

has become impossible at times

in the city’s subway system.

With service drastically re-

duced, essential workers are en-

countering some busy trains as

they head to their jobs. Photos

taken in Brooklyn showed riders

sitting or standing within a few

inches of each other, some not

wearing face masks.

Across the United States, the

death toll topped 12,000, with

about 380,000 confirmed infec-

tions. Some of the deadliest hot

spots were Detroit, New Orleans

and the New York metropolitan

area, which includes parts of

Long Island, New Jersey and Con-

necticut. New Jersey recorded

more than 1,200 dead, most of

them in the northern counties

where many residents commute

into New York.

Elsewhere around the globe,

Chinese authorities ended the

lockdown on Wuhan, allowing

residents to travel in and out of

the sprawling industrial city. Res-

idents must use a cellphone app

showing that they are healthy

and have not been in recent con-

tact with anyone confirmed to

have the virus.

China, which officially record-

ed more than 82,000 infections

and more than 3,300 deaths, list-

ed no new cases on Tuesday, al-

though the country’s figures are

regarded with suspicion by some

public-health experts.

In Japan, Prime Minister Shin-

zo Abe declared a month-long

state of emergency in Tokyo and

six other prefectures because of a

spike of infections in the country

with the world’s oldest popula-

tion.

In Spain, new deaths Tuesday

rose to 743 and infections

climbed by 5,400 after five days of

declines, but the increases were

believed to reflect a weekend

backlog. Authorities said they

were confident in the downward

trend.

In Italy, the hardest-hit coun-

try of all, with more than 16,

deaths, authorities appealed to

people ahead of Easter weekend

not to lower their guard and to

abide by a lockdown now in its

fifth week, even as new cases

dropped to a level not seen since

the early weeks of the outbreak.

NEWYORKTIMESNEWSSERVICE

COVID-19deatht ollinN.Y.nowhigherthan9/11,atmorethan3,200:officials

MARINAVILLENEUVE
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