Dominic Cummings self-isolates with coronavirus symptoms
Boris Johnson’s most senior adviser Dominic Cummings is reportedly self-isolating at home with coronavirus symptoms.
A Number 10 source told the MailOnline that Cummings is still “in contact” with Downing Street colleagues.
A Downing Street spokesperson said they “wouldn’t expect” that Cummings had been tested.
It comes after the Prime Minister tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday, but is displaying only mild symptoms.
Johnson is still running the government’s coronavirus response operation while in self-isolation.
A video emerged on Friday of Cummings leaving Number 10 and running in the other direction, shortly after the Prime Minister announced he had tested positive for Covid-19.
The Prime Minister posted a video on social media last night to update the nation on the “latest steps the government is taking to fight the coronavirus”.
Notably, he said at the end of the video that the response to Covid-19 proved “there is such a thing as society” in a direct repudiation of Margaret Thatcher’s infamous quote that there is “no such thing as a society”.
Johnson revealed that 20,000 former NHS staff have come back into the fold to help in the fight against Covid-19.
He also praised the 750,000 people who have now volunteered to help with the coronavirus response and pharmacists who are still at work.
“We are going to do it, we are going to do it together,” he said.
“One thing I think the coronavirus crisis has already proved, is that there really is such a thing as society.”
It comes as the UK’s deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries said social distancing measures could be in place for six months or longer.
Dr Harries said yesterday that the length of restrictions would depend on the peak of the virus and that they would likely be lifted incrementally.
Speaking at the government’s daily press conference, Dr Harries confirmed the government would undertake reviews of the UK’s regulations on contact between strangers every three weeks “probably over the next six months.”
“It is plausible that it could go further than that,” she added.