Leaders laid low as coronavirus strikes at heart of government
Johnson and Hancock test positive as Chancellor and Chief Medical Officer are sent into isolation
BORIS JOHNSON and his key lieutenants in the battle against coronavirus were all fighting the illness yesterday as it struck at the very heart of government.
The Prime Minister and Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, both tested positive for the virus, with Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, in isolation with clear symptoms.
Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, was working from home as a precaution after taking part in the Clap For Carers event with Mr Johnson in Downing Street on Thursday night. Duncan Selbie, head of Public Health England, also revealed he was self-isolating after developing symptoms last weekend.
Meanwhile, last night, Donald Trump said that the Prime Minister had asked for America to send ventilators to the UK during a phone conversation. “Boris Johnson was asking for ventilators,” he said, adding that Mr Johnson’s positive test was “a terrible thing”.
“We’re going to make a lot of ventilators and we’ll take care of our needs, but we’re also going to help other countries,” said Mr Trump.
On a day when the number of UK coronavirus deaths jumped by 31 per cent to 759, Mr Johnson, the second world leader to test positive for the virus after Albert II of Monaco, insisted he was well enough to run the country via telephone and video link from Downing Street. He is avoiding all contact with colleagues by shutting himself away inside No11, where he lives.
In a video posted on social media yesterday, he said: “I am working from home. I’m self-isolating. And that’s entirely the right thing to do.”
He faced questions last night about whether he had ignored his own rules on social distancing, as Mr Johnson, Mr Hancock and Prof Whitty all attended a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, despite their crucial roles, when all other ministers had dialled in. There are now fears the virus could spread through the Cabinet as the three have had so much contact with ministers.
Other Cabinet members will not, however, be tested unless they develop symptoms because the Government is no longer tracing contacts of people who have the virus.
This means ministers face an anxious wait to find out if they have been infected. A Downing Street spokesman insisted the three had not infected each other at the Cabinet meeting, or when Prof Whitty examined the Prime Minister, as it takes five days for symptoms to show after someone has caught the disease.
The Prime Minister tested positive for the virus late on Thursday night after suffering symptoms earlier in the day. He took part in the Clap for Carers event without warning the Chancellor he was suffering the symptoms, but
No 10 insisted he stayed more than two metres away from him at all times. Mr Johnson’s fiancée, Carrie Symonds, who is pregnant, is understood to have been living away for at least a week.
The Prime Minister chaired a meet- ing of the daily Covid-19 committee from his office yesterday morning.
If Mr Johnson becomes too ill to continue working, Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State, will become caretaker prime minister.
Michael Gove, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said the Prime Minister’s illness was proof that “the virus doesn’t discriminate”.
Mr Hancock and Mr Whitty were also working from home yesterday. No other Cabinet ministers have so far tested positive, but one minister said: “Between them, they have seen every single Cabinet minister in the last 10 days. It’s going to go through all of us.”
Mr Johnson attended Prime Minister’s Questions in Parliament on Wednesday, and came into contact with several other ministers and MPS as well as the Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, 62, who said yesterday he was in good health. Downing Street said it was impossible to say from whom Mr Johnson caught the virus, though numerous members of staff had gone home in recent days after falling ill.
Mr Hancock was the first to show symptoms, complaining of a sore throat on Wednesday afternoon. He was tested on the advice of the deputy chief medical officer and was informed yesterday morning that he had the virus. He had been due at the daily press conference yesterday afternoon, but was replaced by Mr Gove.
Mr Johnson is now self-isolating at No 11. Doors to No 10 and No 12 have been shut and Mr Johnson’s meals and red boxes are being left outside his office by staff who knock, then retreat.
Sir Mark Sedwill, the Cabinet Secretary, the fourth person to attend Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting in person, was said yesterday to have no symptoms.