Britain is at or near the peak of a health crisis in which more than 15,000 people have died – the fifth highest national death toll of a pandemic linked to at least 150,000 deaths worldwide.

Britain Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said a Buzzfeed report that the government was considering lifting the lockdown measures in phases over the coming months was not correct, Reuters reported.

“The facts and the advice are clear at the moment that we should not be thinking of lifting of these restrictions yet,” Gove told Sky News.

With hospitals under strain, health workers have criticized the government’s advice that personal protective equipment (PPE) worn while treating patients infected with coronavirus could be re-used, as supplies run low across the country.

An 84-tonne delivery of PPE from Turkey, which ministers had said would arrive on Sunday, has been delayed, Sky News reported.

The latest data show 15,464 people have died in British hospitals after testing positive for the novel coronavirus, a total that has increased by more than 800 for three days running.

A further 2,500 had died in care homes during the week to April 13, according to the National Care Forum, a representative body for the adult social care sector.

“One of the things that is deeply worrying and concerning is the high level of deaths,” Gove said.

“The evidence suggests that the rate of infection and the death rate is flattening, but we’re not absolutely certain that we are yet on a downward trajectory.”

Gove described as “grotesque” a Sunday Times story that said Prime Minister Boris Johnson had skipped five crisis meetings to address the coronavirus pandemic early in the outbreak.

“The prime minister took all the major decisions. Nobody can say that the prime minister wasn’t throwing heart and soul into fighting this virus,” he said, adding that the story overall was “slightly off-beam”.

Jonathan Ashworth, a lawmaker for the opposition Labor Party, said this comment was “possibly the weakest rebuttal of a detailed expose in British political history”.

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Johnson, who had been isolating in Downing Street after testing positive for the virus last month, was taken to hospital on Sunday night because he still had a high temperature and his doctors felt he needed additional tests.

His office and ministers said Johnson, 55, continued to run the government, that the prime minister was doing well and that he would undergo “routine tests” as a precaution, though Downing Street declined to say which tests he would have.

“He’ll stay in hospital as long as he needs to do that, but I’ve heard that he’s doing well and I very much look forward to him being back in Number 10 as soon as possible,” Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said.

“This isn’t an emergency admission and so I certainly expect that he’ll be back at Number 10 shortly,” he said, though he gave no time frame.

On March 27, Johnson became the first leader of a major power to announce that he had tested positive. The 55-year-old went into isolation at an apartment in Downing Street.

It was not clear how an ill prime minister could lead the government’s emergency response to the outbreak from a hospital. Some medics told Reuters it was unclear what was meant by precautionary tests for COVID-19 complications.

With only an unwieldy collection of sometimes ancient and contradictory precedents to go by, there is no formal succession plan should the prime minister become incapacitated.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, 46, chaired the government’s emergency COVID-19 meeting on Monday.

US President Donald Trump said Johnson was a “strong man” as he passed on his nation’s best wishes.

“All Americans are praying for him,” Trump said. “I’m hopeful and sure that he’s going to be fine.”

The pound fell against the dollar on news of Johnson’s admission to hospital, which occurred just as Queen Elizabeth delivered a rallying call on Sunday night to Britons.

The currency rose when Jenrick said he expected him to be back at Downing Street shortly and was trading at $1.2294.

Doctors said a person of Johnson’s age with COVID-19 symptoms after 10 days was likely to be assessed for their oxygen levels, lung, liver and kidney functions, and undergo an electrocardiogram heart check.

“Clearly the prime minister is finding it difficult to shake this thing off,” said Jonathan Ball, Professor of Molecular Virology at Nottingham University.

“What it does show is how difficult it is to predict how this infection will develop, and whilst most people will experience nothing more than an annoying cold, for others this can develop into a serious and sometimes life-threatening disease.”

Medics said that patients with COVID-19 can deteriorate after about 10 days, with some developing pneumonia. National Health Service guidelines advise those who are self-isolating not to go to the hospital unless they develop new symptoms or become sufficiently unwell.

Johnson, who is not a smoker, said earlier this year that he wanted to lose weight. He plays tennis and while mayor of London used to cycle around the capital.

Health officials said on Sunday the British death toll from the coronavirus had risen by 621 to 4,934.

Johnson, the face of the 2016 Brexit campaign, won a resounding election victory in December before leading the United Kingdom out of the European Union on Jan. 31.

He has faced criticism for initially approving a much more modest response to the novel coronavirus outbreak than other European leaders, saying on March 3 that he had been shaking hands with coronavirus patients.

He changed tack when scientific projections showed a quarter of a million people could die in the United Kingdom.

Johnson effectively shuttered the world’s fifth-largest economy, advising people to stay at home and the elderly or infirm to isolate themselves for weeks.

The virus, though, had already penetrated the British government.

Johnson and his health minister tested positive last month and his chief medical adviser also self-isolated. Johnson’s pregnant 32-year-old fiancee, Carrie Symonds, also had symptoms but said on Saturday she was feeling better.

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“If we’re going to get rid of it, let’s replace it and let’s replace it with the Trump deal,” Johnson said of the international accord. “That would be a great way forward,” according to Reuters.

“I don’t want a military conflict between us, the United States and Iran, let’s dial this thing down,” Johnson said.

Iran has dismissed the idea of renegotiating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or holding talks for another nuclear deal.

On January 12, Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin agreed to fight to the JCPOA after meeting in Moscow amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.

The German Chancellor said “everything must be done” to keep the agreement in place, despite calls from Trump to abandon it, while the Russian president described the deal as “tremendously important.”

The JCPOA is under pressure after Trump pulled out of it last year, triggering Iran’s decision to intensify its enrichment of uranium.

“We agreed that we should do anything to preserve the deal, the JCPOA. Germany is convinced that Iran should not acquire or have nuclear weapons,” Merkel said during a joint press conference with Putin.

“For this reason, we will continue to employ all diplomatic means to keep this agreement alive, which is certainly not perfect but it is an agreement and it comprises commitments by all sides,” Merkel said.

Iran has consistently denied pursuing nuclear weapons, stressing that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

The European Union has said that it will “spare no effort” to keep the 2015 deal alive despite Trump’s call to abandon it.

“It’s not dead, we have to bring it back to life,” Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak said of the deal earlier this week.

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