British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved to intensive care at 7 p.m. U.K. time as a precautionary step, an official said.
Photo: Peter Summers/Getty ImagesLONDON—British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted to intensive care at a London hospital Monday evening as his health turned for the worse nearly two weeks after being diagnosed with the new coronavirus.
The 55-year-old went to a Central London hospital on Sunday after struggling with a persistent cough and fever. An official said the prime minister was still conscious when taken to intensive care, at around 7 p.m. Monday evening U.K. time, adding the move was precautionary to enable Mr. Johnson to get ventilation if he needed it.
Mr. Johnson has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to function as his deputy, the government said in a statement.
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Mr. Johnson’s worsening health comes at a crucial time for the nation, with the virus expected to peak in the U.K. in the coming week and questions being asked over how the country’s continued lockdown will be handled.
Mr. Johnson spent the past week putting a brave face on the situation, working while isolated in his study in Downing Street and communicating with the country via self-recorded videos. However, after he continued to suffer from a persistent cough and temperature, doctors advised that he be admitted to St. Thomas’s Hospital for further tests on Sunday night. On Monday morning, aides said Mr. Johnson had been in touch with Downing Street and was still actively running the country.
Should Mr. Johnson’s health continue to deteriorate, it could raise a constitutional headache at a crucial moment in the U.K.’s battle against the virus. Britain doesn’t have the equivalent to a vice president who automatically takes over if the prime minister dies.
Mr. Johnson eased the transition by deputizing Mr. Raab before he sickened. But if Mr Raab becomes incapacitated, it would be 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 that person has the same authority,” said Catherine Haddon, a constitutional expert at the Institute for Government.
In time, in a process that could take months, the ruling Conservative Party would choose a new leader who would become prime minister.
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Mr. Raab led Monday’s morning cabinet’s civil contingencies meeting in Mr. Johnson’s stead. The foreign secretary also led a press conference on Monday afternoon, where he reiterated that Mr. Johnson was still running the country. However, Mr. Raab said he hadn’t talked to the British leader since Saturday.
The British government initially took a laissez-faire approach to the illness, eschewing some of the more stringent clampdowns being imposed across Europe in an effort to minimize disruption.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will lead Britain’s cabinet while Mr. Johnson is in hospital.
Photo: Dominic Lipinski/Zuma PressThe 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 over 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 in the middle of 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. The government 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, requiring 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 could choose a new head.
—Jason Douglas contributed to this article.
Write to Max Colchester at max.colchester@wsj.com
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2020-04-06 20:40:50Z
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