Boris Johnson infected with coronavirus as COVID-19 strikes at heart of UK government

The three men leading the UK’s fight against coronavirus are all in isolation after the disease reached the heart of government.

Boris Johnson and Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

The three men leading the UK’s fight against coronavirus have all gone into self-isolation after the disease reached the heart of government.

Boris Johnson will work alone at No 11 Downing Street for the next week and will hold meetings by video link after contracting the virus, the first leader of a G7 nation to do so. He is suffering from mild symptoms.

Carrie Symonds, Mr Johnson’s pregnant fiancee, is not staying in Downing Street and is understood to be self-isolating in their south London flat.

“I’ve taken a test. That has come out positive,” Mr Johnson said on Friday in a video statement broadcast on Twitter.

“I’ve developed mild symptoms of the coronavirus. That’s to say - a temperature and a persistent cough.”

“Be in no doubt that I can continue, thanks to the wizardry of modern technology, to communicate with all my top team to lead the national fightback against coronavirus,” he said.

Over the last 24 hours I have developed mild symptoms and tested positive for coronavirus.

I am now self-isolating, but I will continue to lead the government’s response via video-conference as we fight this virus.

Together we will beat this. #StayHomeSaveLives pic.twitter.com/9Te6aFP0Ri

— Boris Johnson #StayHomeSaveLives (@BorisJohnson) March 27, 2020

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, was also diagnosed with the disease while Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, has gone into isolation after displaying symptoms.

Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, said last night that the rate of infection was doubling every three to four days.

Matt Hancock, the health secretary.

The infection of three leading figures will lead to concerns that the virus is spreading in Downing Street. It will also prompt questions about whether those in government are following the social distancing guidelines that they are issuing to the nation.

All three men attended the cabinet in person on Tuesday and The Times has learnt that until this week the government was still holding emergency Cobra meetings on coronavirus in person without any social distancing.

A member of the media wearing a protective face mask works in Downing Street where Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson is self-isolating.

Those meetings included Mr Johnson, Mr Hancock and Professor Whitty as well as Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, Sir Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary. Mr Johnson and Mr Hancock were seen crowding round Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, after prime minister’s questions on Wednesday in a clear breach of social distancing guidelines. In other developments:

- Britain’s toll rose by a third to 759 after 181 more deaths were announced on Friday..

- Ministers announced the introduction of testing for frontline NHS staff.

- All workers who are unable to take their holidays because of coronavirus will be allowed to carry them forward over the next two years.

- Police chiefs admitted that officers were powerless to stop people leaving their homes to exercise more than once a day as the first lockdown fines were issued.

- More than 700,000 volunteers have signed up to help the NHS deliver food and medicines to vulnerable patients.

- France extended its lockdown for that at its peak Britain will experience more than 250 deaths a day, far fewer than the 1,300 a day expected in Italy. The scientists’ best guess for the total number of deaths is 5,700 in Britain, compared with fewer than 4,000 in China. They expect 28,000 deaths in Italy and that this will be overtaken by Spain, which on its present trajectory could suffer 46,000.

The analysis relies on the disease spreading in a similar way to that seen in China. Professor Pike said that despite differences in culture and response, most countries had matched China’s course. “Although there are undoubtedly data issues in the details, the similarity in trajectories of Italy and China suggest that overall the numbers are likely representative,” he said.

Since the severity of measures deployed by different countries has varied, this implied that there was a threshold of social distancing that needed to be crossed to suppress the disease. Once it was crossed more draconian restrictions were unnecessary. This might help countries to plan for the phased lifting of measures expected to take place over the summer.

Early data is already quantifying the behavioural changes instituted by social distancing in Britain. Data from a Public Health England scheme monitoring a network of A&E departments found that daily attendances had fallen from 25,000 to 17,000. While some may have stayed away out of fears of catching coronavirus, there is evidence that others are avoiding hospitals for non-essential problems and taking better care of themselves. A recent poll by Asthma UK found that those with the condition reported paying closer attention to how they managed it.

Professor Ferguson was not involved in the coronavirus research, which was published before peer review on the preprint server Medrxiv. Last week he gave evidence to parliament and said then that he expected there to be far fewer deaths than feared. He later emphasised that the estimates were not an indication that Britain had overreacted to the virus but rather a judgment that the reaction was working. “If anything, our latest estimates suggest that the virus is slightly more transmissible than we previously thought,” he said.

another fortnight until April 15, while the number of deaths in Italy rose by 969 to 9,134 - a record jump.

The Times