LONDON, March 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Friday that he is self-isolating after testing positive for COVID-19.
“Over the last 24 hours I have developed mild symptoms and tested positive for coronavirus,” he said on Twitter, posting a video message.
“I am now self-isolating, but I will continue to lead the government’s response via video-conference as we fight this virus,” he wrote.
“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 added in the video message.
A Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement that Johnson, whose partner Carrie Symonds is pregnant, experienced mild symptoms on Thursday and was tested for COVID-19 on the personal advice of England’s chief medical officer.
The test was carried out in No 10 by NHS staff, the spokesperson added.
In his video message, Johnson thanked workers in Britain’s state-run National Health Service (NHS) for their efforts in battling the spread of the virus.
A total of 11,658 coronavirus cases have so far been confirmed in Britain,
a daily increase of more than 2,000, and 578 deaths.
Earlier this week Prince Charles, the eldest son and heir to Queen Elizabeth II, also tested positive for the virus.
The government confirmed this week that if Johnson was incapacitated, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab would temporarily assume the role of prime minister.
Britain recorded more than 100 coronavirus deaths in a 24-hour period for the first time on Thursday, with 115 people who tested positive for the virus dying.
“As of 5pm (1700 GMT) on 25 March 2020, 578 patients in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) have died,” said the official government website, up from 463 on Wednesday.
The outbreak is concentrated in London, with the head of an organisation representing bosses in the state-run National Health Service warning on Thursday that hospitals in the capital were being overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients.
The chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson, told BBC radio that hospitals in the British capital have seen an “explosion of demand… in seriously ill patients”, likening it to a “continuous tsunami”, with numbers predicted to surge in the next fortnight. — NNN-AGENCIES
