Boris Johnson has not spoken to deputy since before being admitted to hospital

Boris Johnson and his deputy have not spoken since the prime minister was admitted to hospital for coronavirus, Dominic Raab has said.

Speaking during the government's daily Covid-19 news conference the foreign secretary said he had last spoken directly to Mr Johnson on Saturday.

The PM was admitted to London's St Thomas's hospital on Sunday night with persistent symptoms, having previously tested positive.

Addressing the media Mr Raab, who has been designated to deputise for the prime minister, said Mr Johnson "had a comfortable night in hospital and is in good spirits".

But asked whether he had actually spoken to the PM, he said: "I spoke to the PM on Saturday, was the last time I spoke to him in person."

The news comes despite Mr Raab saying that Mr Johnson was in charge and running the country from his hospital bed, and the fact Mr Raab was deputising for the prime minister at the media briefing.

"Look, he's in charge, but he'll continue to take doctors' advice on what to do next," Mr Raab said.

The Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty, who was speaking at the same news conference, was also asked about the prime minister's health.

He replied: "I am absolutely not going to discuss any individual patient, nor do I, to be clear, have all the details, and nor should I."

Downing Street has declined to confirm or deny whether the prime minister has been treated with oxygen while in hospital. A spokesperson said only: “I don’t know the origins of those reports.”

The spokesperson also said it would "entirely be a matter for doctors" whether the prime minister would remain in hospital for another night.

Mr Raab indicated that lockdown measures could continue for some time and suggested that UK was not yet at the peak of its pandemic.

"We do not want to confuse the message right now, because we are not past the peak," he told journalists.

"To get past the peak we must have people respecting those guidelines otherwise we undo all the good work that so many people have achieved and contributed to through their forbearance, particularly as the weather gets a bit warmer."

Dame Angela Maclean, deputy chief scientific advisor said: "We can only make calculations about what we might do next if we have some reasonable data on how large the impact of what we've done is so far. And we can really only start to collect that from now because we're now about two weeks after people would have got infected on 23 March or later."

The latest figures released by the government show the UK death toll from the virus has risen by 439 to 5,373 people.