France, Feb. 25 -- Despite being in the Gemelli hospital in Rome for the past ten days, Pope Francis remains in charge of the Catholic Church and its one billion followers worldwide. The Vatican provided a medical update on Sunday evening which said that despite its severity, the pope's clinical condition has shown signs of improvement in laboratory tests.

The bulletin added that no new episodes of asthma-like respiratory distress had occurredand that the monitoring of his mild kidney insufficiency had not raised further concerns. Oxygen therapy continues to be administered through a canula but with slightly reduced flow and oxygen levels.

Work resumes

The Vatican also said that Pope Francis resumed some work in the afternoon including...