British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made his first public comments Sunday since leaving intensive care, where he was being treated for coronavirus, thanking staff at St. Thomas’ Hospital and crediting them for saving his life.

“I can’t thank them enough. I owe them my life,” Johnson said of the National Health Service staff at the central London hospital, Reuters reported. Johnson was hospitalized April 5 and taken to intensive care the next day, remaining there until April 9.

The comments come as the U.K. recorded 980 coronavirus deaths on Friday, surpassing the single-day record set in Italy, the European nation hardest hit by the virus, and as the British government has come under increasing criticism for an initial strategy of minimal testing and social distancing measures before reversing course and ordering a full lockdown on March 23.

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Business minister Alok Sharma defended the response Sunday, telling Sky News “different countries have different cycles in terms of where they are in terms of the spread of this pandemic,” Reuters reported. Health Minister Matt Hancock, meanwhile, pointed to the U.K.’s larger population to explain its higher daily death toll than Italy’s.

Asked by Germany has kept its death toll much lower despite a greater population than either country, Hancock responded “The German situation is one I look at a lot.”

NHS staff have also claimed they have been provided with insufficient personal protective equipment (PPE). The virus has killed about 20 frontline medical workers so far. In response, Sharma said Sunday, “I said I was sorry for the loss of any life in this pandemic but we are facing an unprecedented situation.”

Recently-elected Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has called on the government to explicitly apologize for PPE shortfalls, telling Sky News “I think it would be smart of the government to acknowledge that their ambition for the equipment to be where it should be ... isn’t being matched and probably just apologize for that and get on with it.”