The move was taken by the head of state’s medical team as a precaution in the event that a ventilator is needed.

This is a developing news story… please check back for possible updates…

(By: Jon Queally, Common Dreams) Just weeks after being roundly criticized for his flippant public attitude about the threat of the coronavirus, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday was transferred into the intensive care unit of a London hospital as he continues to battle the infectious disease.

According to the latest updates from the Guardian newspaper’s live blog:

The decision was made by his medical team after his condition worsened over the course of Monday. The prime minister is understood to be conscious and to have been moved as a precaution in case he needs ventilation.

“Since Sunday evening,” said a spokesperson from Johnson’s office, “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.”

Boris Johnson has been moved to an ICU after his condition worsened, Downing Street has said.

It is understood that he remains conscious, and that the move is a precaution in case he requires a ventilator.

Sky’s @BethRigby reports.#COVID19 latest: https://t.co/6fmNzMNH1J pic.twitter.com/NsnQZGoXiD

— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 6, 2020

Johnson confirmed he tested positive for the disease, also known as Covid-19, last month. As Common Dreams reported at the time, his diagnosis came just weeks after Johnson bragged about how he “shook hands with everybody” at a recent hospital visit—a kind of braggadocio that public health experts and others said was both “surprising and concerning.”