British Prime Minister Boris Johnson left hospital on Sunday and thanked the National Health Service for saving his life, saying "things could have gone either way" for him as he battled COVID-19.
Johnson, 55, was taken to St Thomas' Hospital in central London on April 5, suffering from persistent symptoms of the disease caused by the new coronavirus. On April 6 he was moved into intensive care, where he remained until April 9.
"I have today left hospital after a week in which the NHS has saved my life, no question," he said in a five-minute video message posted on Twitter from 10 Downing Street as the official death toll in Britain passed 10,000.
He named and thanked the nurses who had cared for him, with a special mention for two of them, Jenny from New Zealand and Luis from Portugal, who he said had stood by his bedside for 48 hours "when things could have gone either way."
"The reason in the end my body did start to get enough oxygen was because for every second of the night they were watching and they were thinking and they were caring and making the interventions I needed," he said.
Johnson wore a suit and tie and spoke in his usual energetic manner. In characteristic fashion, he made a joke, thanking the doctors who had cared for him, "several of them for some reason called Nick."
Johnson will continue his recovery at Chequers, the official prime ministerial country residence northwest of London, his office said.
A Reuters photographer saw Johnson and his pregnant fiancee Carrie Symonds, 32, who has also suffered from COVID-19 symptoms, being driven out of Downing Street, in central London, with their dog.
"There were times last week that were very dark indeed. My heart goes out to all those in similar situations, worried sick about their loved ones," Symonds said on Twitter. "Today I'm feeling incredibly lucky."
While Johnson has been out of action, his ministers have come under mounting pressure to explain why the national death toll is rising so fast.
Britain has reported two days in a row of hospital deaths increasing by more than 900 people. Friday's death toll of 980 surpassed the highest recorded in a single day in Italy, the hardest hit country in Europe so far.
The death toll in Britain rose to 10,612, an officials statement said on Sunday.
Johnson thanked the public for following strict social distancing guidelines in place since March 23 and assured them their efforts were paying off.
"I want you to know that this Easter Sunday I do believe that your efforts are worth it, and are daily proving their worth," he said.
"Because although we mourn every day those who are taken from us in such numbers, and though the struggle is by no means over, we are now making progress in this incredible national battle against coronavirus."
In a sign of the gravity of the national emergency, Queen Elizabeth issued her second rallying message in a week, telling the nation that "coronavirus will not overcome us."
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican communion, delivered an Easter Sunday sermon from the kitchen of his London flat, recorded on his computer tablet.
"WE DO HAVE A PLAN"
Meanwhile, ministers were facing uncomfortable questions about whether the alarming rise in the death toll was due to the relatively late decision to impose a lockdown on March 23.
"Well, different countries have different cycles in terms of where they are in terms of the spread of this pandemic," business minister Alok Sharma told Sky News on Sunday when asked to explain the reason for the poor UK numbers.
Health minister Matt Hancock suggested during a BBC radio interview on Saturday that Britain's daily death toll had exceeded Italy's because it had a bigger population. The UK population is about 66 million while Italy's is 60 million.
When asked why Germany, with a population of about 83 million, had much lower numbers, he said: "The German situation is one I look at a lot."
Ministers have insisted that the government took the right steps at the right time, guided by scientific advice.
NHS doctors and nurses across the country are complaining about a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE). About 20 frontline medical staff are reported to have died of the disease after treating patients.
Asked on Sunday whether he would apologize over the loss of life in the NHS and the lack of PPE, Sharma replied: "I said I was sorry for the loss of any life in this pandemic but we are facing an unprecedented situation.
"We do have a plan, we are putting that in place, we're making sure that there are millions of PPE kits going out to the frontline, and of course we need to be doing even more."
The new leader of the opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer, said the government should acknowledge failings more openly.
"I think it would be smart of the government to acknowledge that their ambition for the equipment to be where it should be ... isn't being matched and probably just apologize for that and get on with it," he told Sky News.
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