PRIME Minister Boris Johnson has been moved to the Intensive Care department of a London hospital after his coronavirus symptoms got worse.

Downing Street said the PM was moved on the advice of his medical team, and had asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputise where required.

A statement from Number 10 said: "Since Sunday evening, the prime minister has been under the care of doctors at St Thomas' Hospital, in London, after being admitted with persistent symptoms of coronavirus.

"Over the course of this afternoon, the condition of the prime minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the intensive care unit at the hospital."

"The PM is receiving excellent care, and thanks all NHS staff for their hard work and dedication," it added.

The  move came after the Foreign Secretary led the latest coronavirus breifing from Downing Street.

Mr Raab, speaking at a press conference at Downing Street, said the Prime Minister remained "under observation" in hospital following his admittance with coronavirus on Sunday.

"I can tell you the PM had a comfortable night in hospital and is in good spirits," said Mr Raab.

He gave an update on the number of people the Foreign Office has helped to return to Britain.

He told a press briefing that his department had helped 200,000 return on commercial flights from Spain alone since the crisis began, 13,000 from Egypt and 8,000 from Indonesia.

Chartered flights by the UK Government from seven countries had helped more than 2,000 British nationals return home, while another 1,500 had been repatriated from cruise ships.

And the Cabinet minister promised all was being done to return those still stuck abroad, with more flights from India, South Africa, Nepal and the Philippines flying in later this week.

Mr Raab praised those on the front line of fighting the coronavirus pandemic, following the Queen's tributes on Sunday to the "national spirit of unity and resolve".

He said: "From our heroic doctors, nurses and care workers, through to those manning the tills at supermarkets and pharmacies, to those driving the lorries and the buses, they are all worthy of our applause and they are all worthy of our admiration.

"And on that note, both the Prime Minister and I would like to thank all the NHS staff for their truly heroic work and we urge the public to continue to follow the Government advice to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives."

Professor Dame Angela McLean, deputy chief scientific adviser, said the efforts by Britons to stay at home "are working", and said the growth in the number of Covid-19 cases in hospitals is "not as bad as it would have been if we had not made these efforts".

She said: "It is working but the big question is, is the virus spread slowing down enough to make hospital admissions stabilise and then even fall?"

Dame Angela said the hospital admissions data by region had risen "very steadily" until April 1 and then showed a "more complicated behaviour, starting we hope to slow down".

She added: "But it really is too soon to see the effects of the big changes we've all made to our lives from March 23 onwards because that's only two weeks ago and it takes several weeks after you've become infected for you to realise you're ill enough that you really need to be in hospital.

"We're all watching these numbers very, very carefully and we're very much hoping what's going to happen next is they will at least stop rising."

Mr Raab said that the Prime Minister's team are "full throttle" in making sure that his directions and instructions are being implemented whilst he is in hospital.

He said the team was "full throttle making sure that his directions and his instructions are being implemented and followed through whether it's the purchase of ventilators through to the diplomatic effort to return UK nationals who are stranded abroad".

"But as ever, the Prime Minister will take the medical advice that he gets from his doctor."

Mr Raab said the Government's top priority is to "stop the spread and make sure we can get past the peak".

He was asked about what the Government's "exit strategy" is from the current lockdown policy.

He said: "That's the over-riding focus of the Government right now. The other decisions can be considered in light of the evidence that we're taking from Angela and Chris in due course."

Dame Angela said: "We need a good, long time series of data on all of these stages of infection in order to be able to tell what the impact of the measures that came on March 23 are going to be.

"It's too early to tell yet, we need people to carry on following those instructions so that we can work out three weeks later what actually happens in hospitals."

She added: "We need to know how well the current restrictions are working before we can say anything sensible about what the next stage might be."