Jack Montgomery 27 Mar 2020108
2:08

Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for the British government’s Department for Health and Social Care, announced he has coronavirus shortly after Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

“I’ve been working from home over the last couple of days because everyone who can work from home should work from home,” Hancock began in a video message shared on social media.

“I’ve also had some mild symptoms of coronavirus, and upon medical advice I was tested, and that test has been positive, so I’ll be self-isolating here until next weekend,” he revealed.

Hancock’s announcement followed a similar announcement by the Prime Minister himself.

“I’ve developed mild symptoms of the coronavirus, that’s to say a temperature and a persistent cough, and on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer I’ve taken a test. That has come out positive,” revealed Johnson.

“So I am working from home, I’m self-isolating, and that’s the entirely the right thing to do,” he explained — but added that the public should “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” remotely.

Like the Health Secretary, the Prime Minister stressed that he wanted to “thank everybody who’s working to keep our country going through this epidemic.”

“And we will get through it,” he added — noting that “the way we’re going to get through it is, of course, by applying the measures you will have heard so much about, and the more effectively we all comply with those measures the faster our country will get through this epidemic, and the faster we’ll bounce back.”