U.K. had contingency plan in case of PM Johnson’s death

LONDON — The British government had a contingency plan for Prime Minister Boris Johnson's death as he battled COVID-19 in intensive care last month, he said in an interview with The Sun newspaper.

Johnson, 55, returned to work on Monday, a month after testing positive for COVID-19. He spent 10 days in isolation in Downing Street before he was taken to London's St Thomas' Hospital where he spent three nights in intensive care.

"They had a strategy to deal with a death of Stalin-type scenario," Johnson was quoted as saying in Sunday's edition of The Sun. "It was a tough old moment, I won't deny it."

Johnson said that during the period when he was self-isolating in Downing Street, he had resisted going to hospital.

"I was in denial because I was working and I kept doing these meetings by videolink," he said. "But I was really feeling pretty groggy ... I was feeling pretty wasted, not in an intoxicated way, but just, you know, pretty rough."

"Then I was told I had to go into

St. Thomas'. I said I really didn't want to go into hospital. It didn't seem to me to be a good move but they were pretty adamant. Looking back, they were right to force me to go."

Johnson was admitted to a ward on April 5 and given oxygen via a face mask and a tube in his nose. "I was going through litres and litres of oxygen for a long time," he said. He was moved to intensive care on April 6.

At one point, doctors discussed invasive ventilation.

"The bad moment came when it was 50-50 whether they were going to have to put a tube down my windpipe," he said. "That was when it got a bit . . . they were starting to think about how to handle it presentationally."