Doctors extracted “copious” amounts of mucus from his lungs. They put him on a noninvasive mechanical ventilation mask to help him breathe and he slept with it through the night, but was stable enough on Tuesday morning to use just high flows of supplemental oxygen delivered by a nasal tube.

Pope Francis rested well overnight, the Vatican said on Tuesday, after the 88-year-old pontiff suffered a setback a day earlier as he battles double pneumonia in hospital. Francis, who has been in Rome's Gemelli Hospital since February 14,

Pope Francis suffered two episodes of "acute respiratory failure" on Monday, the Vatican said. The episodes were caused by a "significant accumulation of endobronchial mucus and consequent bronchospasm,