The 83-year-old media mogul is being treated for a “mild” lung infection at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan, where he was admitted on Thursday night.
Alberto Zangrillo, the director of anaesthesia and intensive care at the hospital, said Berlusconi’s situation was “calm and comforting”, and was “evolving regularly and expectedly, generating cautious but reasonable hope”.
Berlusconi had tested positive for coronavirus last Wednesday after returning from a holiday at his luxury villa on Sardinia’s famous Emerald Coast.
He had initially announced that he was in quarantine at his home near Milan.
Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported on Friday that a CT scan revealed signs of a bilateral pneumonia, so Berlusconi was kept in hospital.
Zangrillo said at a news conference on Friday that Berlusconi was not on a ventilator.
The billionaire is “a patient at risk because of his age and previous illnesses”, the doctor said, adding that he should remain in hospital for “a few days”.
Berlusconi had insisted on Wednesday that he would continue his political activities despite the virus.
“I will be present in the electoral campaign with interviews on television and in newspapers,” he said during a video-conference held by the women’s movement of his Forza Italia (FI) party.
Regional elections are due to take place in two weeks, as well as a constitutional referendum on reducing the number of seats in the Italian Parliament.
Berlusconi is the latest in a line of celebrities and prominent figures who have contracted the coronavirus since it was first discovered in December last year.
The list includes Paris Saint-Germain football players including Brazilian star Neymar, as well as movie stars Tom Hanks and Robert Pattinson, Italian singer Andrea Bocelli, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and heir to the British throne Prince Charles.
Berlusconi’s girlfriend, Marta Fascina, a politician with FI, has also tested positive for coronavirus, as have his son Luigi, 31, and daughter Barbara, 36.
