Johnson taken to hospital for coronavirus treatment

Prime Minister’s temperature still elevated two weeks after coming down with Covid-19

BORIS JOHNSON was admitted to hospital last night after failing to shake off coronavirus for two weeks.

No10 said the Prime Minister was taken to hospital by private car for tests after he continued to report a high temperature.

Aides insisted that he remained in charge of the Government.

The news was unexpected as Downing Street had briefed in the midafternoon that there was no change in his condition.

Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, said yesterday morning that while Mr Johnson was “OK” he was still running a mild temperature.

Previously, the Government had indicated that if the Prime Minister was incapacitated, Dominic Raab, as the First Secretary of State, would take temporary charge.

However, rather than hand over the reins to Mr Raab, Mr Johnson has led the battle against the virus by video link from his self-isolation in the study of No 11 Downing Street.

Mr Johnson has chaired the daily Covid-19 war Cabinet briefing and posted regular video messages to voters on Facebook and Twitter. He was briefed on the Government’s approach to the virus again yesterday morning.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “On the advice of his doctor, the Prime Minister has tonight been admitted to hospital for tests.

“This is a precautionary step, as the Prime Minister continues to have persistent symptoms of coronavirus 10 days after testing positive for the virus.

“The Prime Minister thanks NHS staff for all of their incredible hard work and urges the public to continue to follow the Government’s advice to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.”

No10 stressed that Mr Johnson had been admitted for tests “for purely precautionary reasons” after having coronavirus for 10 days and failing to shake off “persistent symptoms, including a high temperature”.

The source said: “This was not an emergency admission and the decision was taken on the advice of his doctor. It was considered sensible for doctors to see the Prime Minister in person given he has ongoing symptoms.

“He remains in charge of the Government, and is in contact with ministerial colleagues and officials.” Mr Johnson had been in isolation since Thursday last week as he desperately tried to shake off a bout of the virus. He has now had the disease for a fortnight having started to feel ill with a temperature on Thursday March 26.

Most people are believed to be infectious without showing symptoms for five days before that.

Although insisting that he must remain in charge, Cabinet ministers have expressed concern, privately telling at least one MP that “because of the temperature he is having to sleep and rest a lot”.

Earlier, Conservative MPS had urged Mr Johnson to take a step back from running the Government’s response to the coronavirus crisis.

One Tory MP said he should stop trying to be copy Winston Churchill’s leadership during the Second World War and instead let another Cabinet minister take charge of the national efforts to fight the virus.

The MP said: “I hear that the number of hours that he is able to work, he is finding frustrating. You don’t hold the camera up and look grim – it is not going to inspire the nation.

“Unfortunately he has written too many books on Churchill and wants to be the guy. He needs to be Boris Johnson and not try to be someone else.”

Mr Johnson has not been seen publicly since Thursday evening but said he had spoken to Sir Keir Starmer, the new Labour leader, on Saturday afternoon. Sir Keir wished the Prime Minister a “speedy recovery” after the announcement.

Mr Raab was expected to chair the morning meeting of the coronavirus “war cabinet” this morning.

Despite his condition, Mr Johnson had continued to file video messages on Twitter and Facebook during his isolation, most recently last Friday night when he looked visibly ill.

He was also photographed at the door of No 11 Downing Street on Thursday night clapping to show his appreciation of NHS carers.

Mr Johnson’s admission to hospital comes just a day after his pregnant fiancée Carrie Symonds disclosed that she had been battling Covid-19 symptoms for a week, although she had not been tested for the virus.

FOR 10 days Boris Johnson had done his best to present a brave face to the world as he fought his own personal battle against the coronavirus that has brought Britain to its knees.

Almost as soon as he started to complain of symptoms a week last Thursday he was insisting that it was business as usual, chairing a meeting of companies making NHS ventilators by conference call.

That Thursday evening, March 26, he took part in the first “clap for the NHS”, standing outside his new home alongside Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, in Downing Street.

The following morning he chaired his regular meeting of the coronavirus “war Cabinet” of top ministers before disclosing his condition in the first of several video updates for social media.

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

Wearing an NHS pin badge, he paid tribute to the nurses and doctors helping Britain through the pandemic, signing off: “We are going to beat it – and beat it together.”

Mr Johnson was put into isolation in Downing Street, given the run of the Chancellor’s study and sitting room in No11, several floors below the flat he shared with Carrie Symonds, his pregnant fiancée.

The interconnecting doors linking 10, 11 and 12 Downing Street were locked shut and video conferencing screens were being installed to allow Mr Johnson to direct operations.

As he strictly followed the rules of self-isolation, he was treated like a prisoner with meals and his official papers left at the adjoining door to No10 for him to collect.

Ever the journalist, Mr Johnson set his own deadline for beating the disease, writing on Twitter that he would be “self-isolating at home for the next seven days”.

His optimism was entirely in keeping with the man known to his many friends going back decades as a journalist on The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator magazine.

Andrew Gimson, his biographer who has known him since the Eighties, said: “He does not really believe in illness – he has never taken illness at all seriously in people who work for him.

“He will try not to take the illness seriously, but the illness may take him seriously, in which case he bloody well will be knocked out by all accounts”. Mr Gimson was to be proved right.

Before Mr Johnson became ill, there had been reports of tension between Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State, and Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, over who would replace him, forcing No10 to make clear that if the Prime Minister was incapacitated, Mr Raab would step in.

However, when he did fall ill, Mr Johnson made clear he remained in charge. He continued over the following 10 days to chair the regular 9.15am “war cabinet” by video phone, as well as last Tuesday’s entire Cabinet.

He kept in touch with the public through videos that he posted online.

While he intended the messages to be morale boosting, Mr Johnson’s flushed appearance shocked many. In a video last Wednesday, he praised the NHS staff and Army reservists shipping NHS masks around the country, adding that testing was “how we will unlock the coronavirus puzzle”.

The following evening Mr Johnson was photographed (right) grinning grimly at the door of No 11 to clap NHS carers for the second week running.

It was little surprise that Mr Johnson did not return to work last Friday as planned and instead he posted another video, in which he said he was still laid low with a high temperature and urged people not to defy the lockdown during the weekend’s warm weather. His work-rate was not letting up. He chaired a meeting of his key ministers on Friday and was then briefed over the weekend on the Government’s response to coronavirus. There was a shock when Miss Symonds, who has been staying away from Downing Street after other staff fell ill, disclosed on Saturday evening that she had been having symptoms for a week.

But yesterday morning, Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary who was diagnosed on the same day as the Prime Minister and had returned to work last week, said Mr Johnson was “OK”.

Mr Hancock added that he had been “talking to him every day, often several times a day, throughout this, throughout the time that both of us were off. He has very much got his hand on the tiller but he has still got a temperature.”

Yet there were warning signs. Cabinet ministers had told MPS that Mr Johnson had become frustrated about the few “hours that he is able to work”.

The MP said: “You don’t hold the camera up and look grim – it is not going to inspire the nation. Unfortunately he has written too many books on Churchill and wants to be the guy. He needs to be Boris Johnson and not try to be someone else.”

Within hours, Mr Johnson was on the way to hospital for in all likelihood – according to Dr Sarah Jarvis, a GP of more than 30 years standing – checks on oxygen levels in his blood, X-rays, scans of his chest and blood tests.

She told the BBC: “Given he is staying in charge of the Government that suggests to me that he probably has moderate disease.”

Dr Jarvis said that patients with “moderate to severe symptoms” of Covid-19 could get to the stage where “walking up the stairs can leave them short of breath and at the severe stage may becoming more breathless at rest.”

Last night, his opponents were united in sending him messages of support. Ed Davey, acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: “Wishing Boris Johnson the best for getting through this, and a full, fast recovery.”

Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, and Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish First Minister, also sent their best wishes.