ris Johnson on Friday announced that he has tested positive for coronavirus, making him the highest profile world leader to confirm being infected in the pandemic that has killed more than 20,000 people and upended everyday life around the world. Describing his symptoms as “mild,” the British prime minister said he would continue to lead his government’s response to the crisis from quarantine in an office adjacent to 10 Downing Street, the prime minister’s official residence. “We will get through it,” Johnson said in a video posted to social media. “We’re going to beat it, and we’re going to beat it together.”
Several officials around the world have fallen ill with the virus, but Johnson is the first head of a government to announce a COVID diagnosis. (Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has made demonstrably untrue claims about coronavirus, has denied previous reports that he tested positive after one of his top deputies was found to be infected.) Johnson’s positive test comes days after Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, was diagnosed, sending shockwaves through the royal family.
The New York Times noted Friday how “Johnson had taken a decidedly more nonchalant approach to the virus than other European leaders,” including initially balking at closing pubs, restaurants, and schools and shaking hands with coronavirus patients. “I shook hands with everybody, you’ll be pleased to know,” he said earlier this month. This past week, however, “Johnson has emerged as a cheerful evangelist for social distancing,” noted the Times.
The prime minister’s COVID-19 diagnosis—along with his chief medical adviser going into quarantine after displaying symptoms—underscores the threat the virus poses to governments. Several United States politicians, including Senator Rand Paul, have tested positive for the virus or self-quarantined after coming into contact with someone who had; Paul and three other lawmakers were unable to vote on a historic rescue package this week aimed at blunting the economic side effects of the crisis because they were in isolation. Donald Trump, who came into contact with several people who had or had been suspected of having the virus, initially refused to get tested for it himself. But after pressure from the public and the media, he said he was examined and tested negative. Still, several close calls—and positive COVID tests from lawmakers—have raised concerns about what could happen if government leaders, many of whom are in a high-risk age group, were to be rendered unable to fulfill their responsibilities. The U.S. government has taken some measures to protect elected officials, but lawmakers and members of the media raised alarms that not enough is being done.
Members of Congress have called on leadership to institute changes, at least temporarily, to allow lawmakers and their staffs to maintain social distancing while performing their duties. Observers like Norm Ornstein have called on Capitol Hill to immediately develop a contingency plan to protect the country’s institutions in the midst of this unprecedented crisis. And members of the media have expressed concern that the White House has not done enough to ensure the safety of reporters covering the administration after a member of the press corp came down with a suspected case of coronavirus. “We quarantined early and have tried to distance. My only significant exposure came at the White House briefing on 3/16,” the journalist, Yahoo News’ Hunter Walker, wrote Friday morning. “I do not think the White House has been remotely careful enough to safeguard staff and press at these briefings.”
So far, Johnson’s illness does not appear to be keeping him from work—though it has kept his staff from coming near him, sending his chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, sprinting away from the prime minister’s residence after the test came back positive.
Johnson’s diagnosis should send a clear message to other governments, including the Trump administration, that have been relatively cavalier about safety measures during the pandemic: Try as you might, you can’t outrun this virus.
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