British Prime Minister Boris Johnson participating in a national "clap for carers" on April 2, after he had tested positive for coronavirus and was in self isolation.
Photo: pippa fowles/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesLONDON—British Prime Minister Boris Johnson remained under observation in a London hospital after undergoing tests as he struggled to recover from symptoms of the new coronavirus.
Mr. Johnson had a “comfortable night” and “is in good spirits” after being admitted to hospital on Sunday night, a government spokesman said. Despite the illness, which left him in isolation for over 10 days, Mr. Johnson continues to work from his bed at St Thomas’ hospital in central London, the spokesman said, receiving briefings and contacting members of his team.
Downing Street officials denied a Russian report that he was on a ventilator, underlining that his admission wasn’t an emergency measure.
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The timing of Mr. Johnson’s illness couldn’t be worse, with the virus expected to peak in the U.K. as soon as this weekend and questions being asked over the government’s belated decision to lockdown the country and how it could eventually be eased.
Britain doesn’t have the equivalent to a vice president who automatically takes over if the prime minister falls gravely ill or dies. Instead, it is up to the members of the U.K. cabinet to decide among themselves who should lead the country. “It really depends on everyone just accepting that person has the same authority,” said Catherine Haddon, a constitutional expert at the Institute for Government.
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Mr. Johnson has smoothed some potential difficulties by designating Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to lead the cabinet in his stead. Should Mr. Raab in turn fall ill, the prime minister could pick another member of his cabinet to replace him.
Mr. Raab held Monday morning’s government virus-response meeting and will also lead the daily press conference. A government spokesman said Mr. Johnson was still making key decisions on the government’s coronavirus strategy.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will lead Britain’s cabinet while Mr. Johnson is in hospital.
Photo: Dominic Lipinski/Zuma PressThe British government initially took a laissez-faire approach to the illness eschewing some of the more stringent clampdowns that were being imposed across Europe in an effort to minimize disruption.
The government’s pandemic plan, which was crafted by scientists over the last two decades, played down the need to rush to shut schools and ban mass gatherings, arguing they did little to stop a virus’s spread.
Meanwhile, British epidemiologists initially underestimated how many people could require intensive care if they got ill, according to officials. Worried that the British public wouldn’t isolate for weeks on end, the government reasoned it was better to wait until the virus’s spread was accelerating to impose a lockdown.
Even as evidence mounted about the seriousness of the virus’s spread, Britain’s crowded parliament and the warren of buildings around Downing Street where Mr. Johnson both lives and works were humming with people.
“I am shaking hands continuously,” Mr. Johnson said at the start of March. “I was at a hospital the other night where there were actually a few coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody.”
Downing Street continued to operate much as normal with briefings in the state room and meetings convened around crowded tables in the building’s drawing rooms.
On March 16 scientists advising the government concluded that the clampdown needed to be accelerated following a series of reports by modelers showing the National Health Service would quickly be swamped.
Even after Mr. Johnson locked down the country on March 23, he continued to attend cabinet in person. The same week he fell ill Mr. Johnson attended a “virtual” cabinet meeting sitting with both the health secretary and the country’s most senior civil servant.
Police outside St.Thomas's Hospital in London, where the prime minister is being treated for coronavirus.
Photo: andy rain/ShutterstockThe virus then spread through his top team. Mr. Johnson’s chief of staff Dominic Cummings and the country’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty isolated with symptoms. The health secretary Matt Hancock subsequently fell ill.
Mr. Johnson’s pregnant fiancée Carrie Symonds said she has also suffered symptoms of the virus. Most of Mr. Johnson’s team is back at work and Ms. Symonds tweeted at the weekend that she was now feeling stronger. Mr. Cummings isn’t back in Downing Street yet but is working.
Mr. Johnson put on a brave face once in isolation. He published a series of videos in which he said he had mild symptoms.
However, people who were in contact with him mid-last week were expressing concern about his well-being. Mr. Johnson continued to lead cabinet meetings via video link in his study.
He also appeared outside his door in Downing Street on Thursday to join a nationwide applause of National Health Service workers. The government insisted that his symptoms were still mild but admitted his condition wasn’t improving.
By Friday a pale-looking Mr. Johnson told the nation via a self-filmed video that he would continue to isolate because of a persistent fever. At 8 p.m. on Sunday, as Queen Elizabeth addressed the nation imploring people to follow social-distancing guidelines, Mr. Johnson was driven to hospital for tests.
Mr. Johnson’s government is currently working to ramp up tests for the virus, after failing to stockpile the necessary equipment before the virus struck.
On Monday it confirmed that millions of antibody tests it had ordered, which would check if people had gained immunity to Covid-19, didn’t function properly. It is in discussion with manufacturers to refine them, an official said.
The last prime minister to have to sound out his cabinet for a successor while ill was Harold MacMillan in 1963. He resigned shortly after.
Any replacement to Mr. Johnson would need to be named by the Queen, necessitating the cabinet to agree among themselves who can best command support of the country. That leader would likely be an interim prime minister until the ruling Conservative Party can choose a new head.
Write to Max Colchester at max.colchester@wsj.com
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2020-04-06 14:04:12Z
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