Derek Draper is seen on a rare trip outside - as friends hope that fresh air will "aid his recovery".
New photos show him in a wheelchair wrapped up in a coat and gloves whilst out and about in London with a carer.
But unfortunately, he is still on a long road to recovery after suffering significant organ damage when he first contracted coronavirus early in 2020.
A family friend told the Mirror: "Over the last couple of weeks Derek's been going in and out of hospital for a number of ongoing appointments and tests, as a number of referrals he has been waiting for since his first release from hospital in April 2021 have come through.
"Even though he can only sit for very short periods of time, the medical teams are now very keen he gets short bursts of fresh air with his nurse to aid his recovery. Derek’s friends and Kate are really hoping he can build on this."
Derek, 55, has been almost constantly bedridden since he contracted coronavirus in March 2020 and was hospitalised for 13 months and in a medically-induced coma. He returned home in April 2021 but still needs round-the-clock care.
At the start of last year, there were signs of improvement but progress is slow and he has been in hospital a number of times since being released with other health issues.
Asked how the family are now in an interview earlier this month, Kate, 55, said: “They’re OK, they're good. It is challenging, he's still very, very damaged. He still can't really move, still can't really speak, still fed through tubes, and so there's a long road ahead.
“But if you compare it to last Christmas or the Christmas before, when he was still in hospital then you can see improvement.
"It's just, you just want it to be quicker and faster, of course, like everybody would.
"But it's a challenging one - he spent most of last year in the hospital as well for various different things, so it was lovely to have him home.”
She also told this month about how she and their children Darcey, 17, and Billy, 13 are trying to make Derek more mobile on days where he shows improvement.
She said: "There are some days where he literally cannot do anything and it’s like the computer is switched off.
“He cannot move, and he’s in so much pain as we are manipulating him, trying to get him more mobile so that he doesn’t regress.
“I always ask him if he wants to stop, and he grunts ‘no. no’.
“It is unbearable, and it makes me emotional even talking about it.
“But it also makes me fall in love with him all over again because of that spirit, that determination to keep going.
“Derek is trapped, but he fights on. We cling on to the good days.”
Earlier this month Kate also told how she had recently taken her first family holiday abroad to Disneyland Paris.
The family, including children Darcey and Billy had been to Disneyland Paris weeks before Derek got ill and have now returned there again. He was sadly too ill to go with them.
On the Journey To Magic podcast, Kate said: "We have just got back to Disneyland Paris. So, it was our big goal to go back there with Derek, unfortunately, on the morning [of the trip] he couldn't come.
"But we went back there with the kids and I was lucky enough to go with my best friend Vicky and it was just an amazing thing, so it’s a special place.”
Recalling the last time they were there, Kate said: "I remember as we headed back to get on the train under the tunnel we went into a pharmacy to get some paracetamol or something and everywhere in French it said ‘no masks all sold out’.
"I remember Derek and I saying to each other, ‘god they’re taking it really seriously over here’ and then we came back and it was literally about two or three weeks later Derek got sick and so it was the last thing we did together."
Former political advisor Derek is thought to be the worst affected living Covid patient in the UK.
