Jeremy Clarkson reveals COVID-19 battle over Christmas

Jeremy Clarkson says he got COVID-19 for Christmas, and feared he would ‘die alone in a plastic tent’.

Author and broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson. Picture: Supplied

Columnist and broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson has revealed his battle with COVID-19 over Christmas that left him fearing he would die alone “in a plastic tent”.

The 60-year-old revealed in his Times column that he fell ill four days before Christmas, and was then diagnosed with the virus after a visit to the doctor.

“The doctor was very clear: I’d feel under the weather for between five and 14 days and then I’d either get better or I’d have to go to hospital,” Clarkson wrote.

“Where, because I am 60 and fat, and because I’ve smoked half a million cigarettes and had double pneumonia, I’d probably die, on my own, in a lonely plastic tent.

“I didn’t feel too bad. To start with, it was like the sort of cold ... But then my breathing really did start to get laboured, and there was always the doctor’s warning ringing in my head about how it might suddenly get worse.”

Clarkson said his biggest problem on Christmas Day was finding out if it was safe to have a glass of champagne.

“Eventually I found a website featuring a doctor in Darwin, who said that drinking in moderation when you have Covid is fine.

“This is the problem we have. We keep being told that we know a great deal about Covid, but what I’ve learnt over the past 10 days is: we don’t. We don’t know how long we are infectious for. We don’t know how to tackle it. We don’t know what it does to us.”