Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni visited Pope Francis in hospital yesterday and reported he was “alert and responsive”, despite his diagnosis of pneumonia and a complicated bronchial infection that has sidelined the 88-year-old pontiff for six days.

Pope Francis is alert, got out of bed to eat breakfast and is showing signs of “slight improvement,” the Vatican said Thursday — nearly a week after the pontiff was rushed to hospital battling double pneumonia.