Johnson was admitted to hospital on Sunday, 10 days after being diagnosed with COVID-19. He was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit on Monday when his condition deteriorated.

“The latest from the hospital is that the Prime Minister remains in intensive care where his condition is improving,” Sunak said in a press briefing on Wednesday.

“I can also tell you that he has been sitting up in bed and been engaging positively with the clinical team.”

Johnson’s spokesman, James Slack, said earlier the PM continues to receive “standard oxygen treatment” and is breathing without any other assistance.

Slack declined to provide further details of Johnson’s treatment, saying Wednesday’s update “contains all of the information which the PM’s medical team considers to be clinically relevant.”

The 55-year-old was taken to London’s St Thomas’s Hospital on Sunday evening with a fever and cough that persisted 10 days after he tested positive for the virus.

He is the first world leader confirmed to have the coronavirus.

The news came as the UK reported the largest daily rise in deaths from coronavirus on Wednesday – up by 938 – taking the total death toll to 7097.

– AAP