Health Secretary Sajid Javid tests positive for Covid-19
The new health secretary Sajid Javid has announced he’s tested positive for coronavirus and has “mild symptoms”.
“This morning I tested positive for Covid,” Javid wrote in a tweet.
“I’m waiting for my PCR result, but thankfully I have had my jabs and symptoms are mild.
“Please make sure you come forward for your vaccine if you haven’t already.”
Javid said he took a lateral flow test this morning, after he felt “a bit groggy” on Friday night, and is now at home with his family self-isolating.
The health secretary also urged people who have come into contact with anyone that has tested positive for Covid-19 to get tested themselves.
Earlier this week on Tuesday, Mr Javid visited Aashna care home in Streatham, south London.
Photos of Javid leaving No 10 yesterday wearing no mask have also emerged, raising the possibility that the PM Boris Johnson may also have to self-isolate as the UK heads into “Freedom Day” on Monday.
made his first visit to a care home as health secretary at Aashna Care in Streatham, south London.
It comes the day after the latest update from the ONS showed that Covid cases are spiralling in the UK.
The ONS estimates that 577,700 people in England had Covid last week – equating to one in 95, or over 1 per cent of the population.
It marks a sharp increase from the previous week, when ONS data suggested one in every 160 people in England had Covid.
The sharp rise in Covid cases across all regions of the UK comes just days before most remaining restrictions are due to be lifted in England on Monday’s “Freedom Day”.
Soaring case rates have been evident in the country’s so-called “pingdemic” frenzy in the past week, which has seen over half a million people alerted by the NHS Test and Trace app for coming into contact with someone that tested positive.
Businesses across the board have warned that severe staff shortages due to alerts from the app may hamper their return to normal on Monday, with 20 per cent of retail workers and one in five hospitality workers currently absent.
Health secretary Sajid Javid has previously warned that daily case rates could rise as much as 100,000 per day after all restrictions are lifted, but that the country’s vaccination programme has provided a “wall of defence against the virus.”
On Wednesday, Javid announced: “Two thirds of adults across the UK have now had two jabs. We have beaten our target by almost a week – this is a huge achievement,” in another tweet.
More than 81m vaccine doses have been given to adults in the UK, with 46m (87 per cent) having received a first dose and 35m (67 per cent) now fully-vaxxed.