UK

Boris Johnson has tested positive for coronavirus and people are making the same point about Princess Diana

Boris Johnson has coronavirus and everyone is making the same point

Britain’s prime minister Boris Johnson has tested positive for coronavirus. He lives with his pregnant fiancée, Carrie Symonds, 32. (TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)

Boris Johnson, prime minister of Britain, has tested positive for coronavirus and is suffering mild symptoms, the government said Friday morning.

He is the first leader of a major Western country known to have contracted the virus, and countless people are making the same point about the late Princess Diana in the midst of the announcement.

The premier cheerfully bragged at a March 3 press conference that he “shook the hands” of coronavirus patients at a hospital, an act that became a lightning rod of concern from health advocates and medical professionals.

As a result, some Twitter users have reflected this to how the royal famously visited a specialist HIV clinic in 1987 and shook hands with patients living with the virus without gloves.

A simple gesture that publicly challenged the toxic notion that HIV/AIDS was passed from person to person by touch.

Boris Johnson tests for coronavirus, Downing Street confirms. 

“After experiencing mild symptoms yesterday, the prime minister was tested for coronavirus on the personal advice of England’s chief medical officer, professor Chris Whitty,” the government said in a statement.

“The test was carried out in Number 10 by National Health Service staff and the result of the test was positive.”

In keeping with government guidance, the prime minister is self-isolating in Downing Street.

Johnson later addressed his 1.8 million followers on Twitter stating that he will “continue to lead the government’s response via video-conference as we fight this virus.

“Together we will beat this.”

It comes after the first secretary of state and former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab would take over prime ministerial duties by Downing Street if Johnson was taken ill.

‘He thought he was Princess Diana.’

As news of the premier being sickened by coronavirus radiated across Twitter, several users began to compare Johnson’s boast of shaking hands with patients to Diana’s visit to London Middlesex Hospital.

Being at the peak of the AIDS pandemic that paralysed the nation, the similarities to the COVID-19 outbreak, users said, were uncanny.

What can I do to stop the spread of coronavirus?

In an effort to curb the climbing provirus caseload bearing down on the NHS, the government recommended that the non-key workers self-isolate at home – only leaving to shop for basic necessities, medical need or one form of exercise.

Washing hands for with soap and water for 20 seconds, minimising contact with people and staying two meters apart from anyone outside of your household are also recommended, according to the NHS.

Princess Diana’s ex-husband, Prince Charles, has also tested positive coronavirus.

PinkNews wishes prime minister Boris Johnson a full recovery.

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