British PM Boris Johnson reveals doctors had contingency plan in case he died of coronavirus

The prime minister said in a newspaper interview that he needed ‘litres and litres’ of oxygen and it was a ‘tough old moment’

He is back at work and became a father again on Wednesday, naming his son in part after two of the doctors who treated him

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Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson has offered more insight into his recent hospitalisation for coronavirus, saying he needed ‘litres and litres’ of oxygen. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:04pm, 3 May 2020Updated: 10:04pm, 3 May 2020

Doctors treating Boris Johnson for coronavirus prepared to announce his death after he was taken to intensive care, the British prime minister said on Sunday, in his first detailed comments about his illness.

“It was a tough old moment, I won’t deny it,” he was quoted as saying by The Sun on Sunday newspaper in an interview. “They had a strategy to deal with a ‘death of Stalin’- type scenario.

“I was not in particularly brilliant shape and I was aware there were contingency plans in place. The doctors had all sorts of arrangements for what to do if things went badly wrong.”

Boris Johnson is seen displaying his Get Well Soon cards sent in by children. Photo: AFP

Johnson, 55, first announced he had contracted Covid-19 on March 27 but maintained he had only mild symptoms. Yet he failed to shake the illness after a week of self-isolation.

He was taken to hospital as a precaution on April 5 for further tests but within 24 hours was moved to intensive care.

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