LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned to 10 Downing Street on Sunday, Sky News reported, after spending a week in hospital with COVID-19 and two weeks recovering at his country residence.
A Downing Street spokeswoman declined to comment on Johnson’s whereabouts.
The government had previously announced he would be back at work on Monday. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who has been deputising for him in his absence, said Johnson was “raring to go.”
Britain on Sunday reported its lowest daily rise in coronavirus deaths in nearly four weeks as the government resisted calls for an early easing of countrywide lockdown rules.
The number of people who have died from the virus has risen by 413 to 20,732, officials said Sunday, the lowest reported daily increase in fatalities in all of April.
The last time the health department recorded a smaller increase was on March 31, at 381 deaths.
Despite the slowdown - which came at a weekend when the toll has often been lower - Environment Secretary George Eustice said now was not the time to relax strict social distancing rules.
"There are encouraging signs of progress," he said at the daily Downing Street press briefing.
"But before we consider it safe to adjust any of the current system distancing measures, we must be satisfied that we have met the five tests set last week."
These included making sure the British health service NHS was able to cope, and a "sustained and consistent" fall in the daily death rate.
