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Post by Admin on Apr 12, 2020 4:06:59 GMT
“I can’t thank them enough, I owe them my life,” said Boris Johnson.
His short statement, issued on Saturday night, paying tribute to NHS staff, followed a nerve-racking few days when he was rushed to hospital, later admitted to intensive care, given oxygen, before being released back on to the ward to begin his slow recovery.
In the early days of Johnson’s infection with the coronavirus, when he was self-isolating in his flat above 11 Downing Street, every effort was made to play down the gravity of his condition.
This, no doubt, was the way Johnson wanted it. Friends and others who have known him for many years are well aware that he had always – and certainly in his younger days – been rather dismissive of the idea of getting ill.
The former Tory MP and journalist Paul Goodman, who worked with him at the Daily Telegraph, recalls this tendency: “I remember he always seemed to regard being ill as a form of moral weakness. It baffled him.”
So the early messages about Johnson’s solitary confinement were typically defiant. The symptoms, we were told, were mild – something of an irritant but no more. And they certainly would not prevent the prime minister from continuing to run the country and lead it, Churchill style, out of our grave national crisis and well beyond.
Even then, however, there was understandable concern for the PM’s health. Despite all the bravado and Johnson’s “keep buggering on” spirit, the 55-year-old had been placed on a significantly reduced workload in an attempt to aid his recovery.
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Post by Admin on Apr 12, 2020 18:21:27 GMT
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said it "could have gone either way" as he thanked healthcare workers for saving his life after being discharged from hospital.
Mr Johnson, 55, was taken to London's St Thomas' Hospital on Sunday - 10 days after testing positive for Covid-19.
He spent three nights in intensive care before returning to a ward on Thursday.
He said in a video on Twitter that he had witnessed the "personal courage" of hospital staff on the front line.
Mr Johnson said two nurses - Jenny from New Zealand and Luis from Portugal - stood by his bedside for 48 hours at the most critical time and named several other hospital workers who cared for him this past week that he wanted to thank.
He said NHS workers "kept putting themselves in harm's way, kept risking this deadly virus".
"It is thanks to that courage, that devotion, that duty and that love that our NHS has been unbeatable," he said.
Downing Street said the PM would continue his recovery at his country residence, Chequers.
"On the advice of his medical team, the PM will not be immediately returning to work. He wishes to thank everybody at St Thomas' for the brilliant care he has received.
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Post by Admin on Apr 27, 2020 8:37:45 GMT
The PM says we can gradually get back to normal but difficult judgments will be made and the government cannot spell out now how fast that will happen.
He said more announcements will be made in the coming days and promises to be transparent with the British people.
Mr Johnson said preparations are underway to allow us to win phase two of this fight.
He said if the public can keep going by staying home and show the same spirit of optimism shown by Captain Tom Moore and the spirit of unity over the past six weeks he has absolutely no doubt we will beat it and the UK will emerge stronger than every before.
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He says to British business: "I understand your impatience and I share your anxiety but without the private sector and commitment of the wealth creators of this country there will be no economy or cash to fund public services, the NHS."
He said he can see the long-term consequences of lockdown and shares the urgency from businesses, but says we need to recognise the risk of a second spike, the risk of losing control and letting the reproduction rate of "going over one" as that would mean a new wave of death and disease and an economic disaster and he would be forced once again to "slam on the brakes" on the economy and the country.
He says he refuses to throw away all the efforts of the British people so asks us to contain our impatience as he believes we are coming to the end of the first phase and we have so nearly succeeded.
He said we did not run out of hospital beds and ventilators and we have shielded our NHS so they can shield all of us from an outbreak that would have been far worse.
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