John Prine remains in ICU with pneumonia in both lungs, his wife says

As John Prine remains in the hospital fighting COVID-19, his wife, Fiona Whelan Prine, tweeted an update Thursday night that went into some detail about what’s going on with the esteemed 73-year-old Americana singer-songwriter.

“This is John’s 8th day in ICU,” she wrote in a lengthy Twitter thread. “He is receiving excellent medical care and being treated with kindness and compassion by the entire team looking after him day and night. I cannot be with him which makes this nightmare all the more distressing.”

Prine, who was put on a ventilator Saturday, has pneumonia in both lungs and “still needs quite a bit of help with his breathing,” Whelan Prine wrote. Some peripheral issues are being treated with medications including antibiotics.

The two-time Grammy winner, who was also given a lifetime achievement Grammy this year, was hospitalized March 26 after a “sudden onset” of COVID-19 symptoms.

“He is very ill and yet I remain hopeful that he can continue to fight this devastating virus and come home where we can care for him. I don’t have the words to adequately Thank You all for the outpouring of love and prayers that John and our family have received this last week,” she wrote, asking fans to please continue to send positive energy to her husband.

Whelan Prine, who is in her early 50s, also contracted the coronavirus but said Monday that she was recovering. The couple has been married since 1988.

When she updated people on Prine’s condition, she initially tweeted that he was stable, but then posted a clarification.

Stable, she tweeted, “is not the same as improving. There is no cure for Covid-19. He needs our prayers and love — as do the thousands of others who are critically ill.”