Javid’s Covid & N
Positive test for Health Secretary but will Boris obey isolation rules?
SAJID Javid last night triggered fears of a disruptive ‘pingdemic’ striking at the heart of Government after testing positive for coronavirus.
The Health Secretary had visited the Commons and Downing Street in previous days – and is understood to have held a lengthy face-to-face meeting with Boris Johnson just before his symptoms developed – sparking concerns that senior figures across Whitehall would have to be confined to home.
One insider said ‘half the Cabinet’ could be in isolation by the end of the week.
After feeling ‘a bit groggy’ on Friday night, Mr Javid – who has been doublejabbed – took a lateral flow test yesterday. When it came back positive, he began selfisolating with his family pending the results of a more reliable PCR test. That also came back positive last night.
He said his symptoms were ‘mild’ but there were immediate concerns over those he had been in contact with, including Ministers and senior civil servants.
Downing Street had said earlier yesterday that if Mr Javid’s PCR test was positive, those he had been close to would be traced.
The Health Secretary was pictured leaving No 10 on Friday, shortly before he began to feel
‘Scared of losing family holidays if pinged’
unwell. He had visited vulnerable people in Aashna House care home in Streatham, South London, on Tuesday. All staff and residents have been vaccinated and the home said yesterday that it has no current Covid cases.
Announcing his initial positive test on Twitter earlier yesterday, Mr Javid – who has had two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine – wrote: ‘I’m waiting for my PCR result, but thankfully I have had my jabs and symptoms are mild. Please make sure you come forward for your vaccine if you haven’t already.’
Schools, hospitals, transport services and factories have been hit by staff shortages caused by the ‘pingdemic’ of notifications on England’s NHS Covid app.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been told they have been close to someone who has tested positive so must self-isolate, while others have been contacted by Test and Trace call centres.
However, many Whitehall officials and Ministers have been able to carry on visiting their offices if they take a daily test.
They include Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove, who was ‘pinged’ in May when he flew out to
Porto to watch the Champions League football final but was able to avoid self-isolation by entering a ‘research programme’ called the Daily Contact Testing Study.
The Whitehall scare – just hours before the so-called Freedom Day relaxation of Covid measures in England tomorrow – came as industry chiefs warned of food shortages and unemptied bins if urgent action was not taken to address the sensitivity of the English app. One London Tube line closed yesterday when staff were forced to self-isolate, and teaching unions said there had been reports of children being taken out of school because parents were scared of losing family holidays if they were ‘pinged’.
Meanwhile, Ministers said France could be moved to the ‘red list’ of countries over fears that the South African, or Beta, variant spreading rapidly in the country could evolve to evade the vaccine. On Friday night, the Government excluded France from new rules for amber list countries that allow double-jabbed travellers to escape up to ten days of home quarantine on their return, sparking anger among holidaymakers and the travel industry.
If France is added to the red list, returning Britons would be forced to pay up to £1,750 for a ten-day stay in a quarantine hotel – although there are only thought to be about 20,000 such rooms available and up to 500,000 Britons are estimated to be in France.
In other developments:
The UK moved closer to the previous peak of 68,000 daily cases, recorded in January, with infections reaching 54,674;
Mr Javid became embroiled in a row with Rishi Sunak over plans for a £10 billion-a-year ‘health tax’ to clear the backlog of operations and fund care for the elderly;
The Olympic athletes’ village in Tokyo saw its first Covid case;
Scotland prepares to officially move to ‘modified Level 0’, as strict rules on hospitality continue.
‘France excluded from new amber list rules’