HOUSTON (AP) — Former President George H.W. Bush is unlikely to leave the Houston hospital where he's being cared for anytime soon but would tell well-wishers to "put the harps back in the closet," a longtime aide said.

Jean Becker said in a statement Thursday evening that the 88-year-old, who has been hospitalized for longer than a month, is receiving excellent care after a "terrible case of bronchitis which then triggered a series of complications."

Bush, the oldest living former president, has been in intensive care since Sunday. He was admitted to Methodist Hospital in Houston on Nov. 23 for treatment of what his spokesman Jim McGrath described as a "stubborn" cough. He had spent about a week there earlier in November for treatment of the same condition.