Boris Johnson's pregnant fiancée Carrie Symonds banned from seeing him as he battles coronavirus in ICU
As reports flooded in that the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had been admitted to an ICU due to his ill-health because of COVID-19, concerns were raised for his heavily pregnant partner.
While not officially married, Johnson has been dating Carrie Symonds, who has worked for the Conservative Party since 2009 and worked on Johnson's 2012 campaign to be re-elected as Mayor, since 2018 as well.
She was confirmed pregnant just weeks after Johnson took office as Prime Minister and is due to give birth soon. Following Symind's pregnancy confirmation, it was reported that she was also experiencing the symptoms of the novel coronavirus.
While there is no evidence to suggest that the virus can harm a fetus, little is still known about it and medical professionals have warned expectant mothers to take every precaution during this outbreak.
Symonds, 32, is said to have been under tremendous strain even before Johnson's diagnosis and had been seeing little to none of him as the pandemic wreaked havoc in the United Kingdom.
Johnson had been required to chair multiple meetings every day to strategize the country's response to the virus that left him with almost no time to see her. After he went into self-isolation because he tested positive for the illness himself, he has not seen her at all.
Symonds has reportedly since left Downing Street and is staying with her mother at their home in East Sheen, South West London, which means she will be several miles from where Johnson is now being treated. Even if she wanted to, she wouldn't be able to visit him because of her condition.
MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) previously reported that Johnson, 55, was admitted to St Thomas’ Hospital late on Sunday, April 5, ten days after he was diagnosed with COVID-19.
"Over the course of this afternoon, the condition of the Prime Minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital," his office said in a statement.
Downing Street said Johnson was conscious and did not require ventilation at the moment, but was in the ICU as a precaution in case he needed it later. In his absence, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been asked to deputize for him.
Just hours before his admission, he had tweeted that he was in good spirits after spending a night in the hospital and thanked the National Health Service for taking care of him and others during this difficult time.
"On the advice of my doctor, I went into the hospital for some routine tests as I’m still experiencing coronavirus symptoms," he said in the tweet. "I’m in good spirits and keeping in touch with my team, as we work together to fight this virus and keep everyone safe."
The United Kingdom has over 52,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, according to John Hopkins University's live-tracking dashboard. Over 5,300 people have died, with citizens asked to remain under lockdown in a bid to slow the spread of the outbreak.