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Pope Francis is still critically ill as he battles double pneumonia, but his condition has shown a “slight improvement”, the Vatican has said, adding that he has even continued his regular calls to a priest in Gaza.
The 88-year-old pontiff is spending his 11th night in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, making it the longest hospital stay of his nearly 12-year papacy.
“The clinical conditions of the Holy Father, in their critical nature, show a slight improvement,” the health update read.
The pope, it said, was still receiving oxygen, “although with slightly reduced flow and oxygen percentage”.
It said the “mild kidney insufficiency”, , was “not a cause for concern”.
A Vatican official, who did not wish to be named because he was not authorised to speak about the pope’s condition, earlier said Pope Francis was eating normally and was able to get up and move about his hospital room.
Monday’s statement said the pope had resumed work in the afternoon and in the evening made a call to Father Gabriel Romanelli of the Holy Family Parish Gaza, which the pope has done frequently during the Hamas-Israel war.
In late January, the Vatican’s official news outlet reported the pope saying that he called the Gaza parish “every day”.
Describing a call with the pope on Saturday, Romanelli, a fellow Argentine, quoted Francis as saying: “A few days (in hospital) and I’ll be back”, and quipped that he was “not an easy patient for doctors, because he is always talking, always very active”.
On Sunday, the Vatican described the . On Saturday, it said the pope had needed a blood transfusion after experiencing a “prolonged asthma-like respiratory crisis”.
Monday’s update said the pope had not had a further respiratory crisis and that some of his laboratory tests “have improved”.
Double pneumonia is a serious infection that can inflame and scar both lungs, making it difficult to breathe.
Pope Francis, who has been pope since 2013, has suffered bouts of ill health over the past two years. He is particularly prone to lung infections because he developed pleurisy as a young adult and had part of one lung removed.
