Jeremy Vine hits out at government over handling of COVID

Updated

Watch: Jeremy Vine blasts government over COVID

Jeremy Vine has criticised the government for their handling of COVID-19 as he is bedbound with the virus.

Vine's outburst comes as official figures show that COVID infections have risen for the first time in two months.

It is thought around one million people had coronavirus the week before last.

The TV and radio host tweeted that he had come down with the virus: "Sore throat. Headache. Cough. Aches and pains and the Joy Division t-shirt. So I’m in bed with it, with COVID."

Jeremy Vine arrives at the Curzon in Bloomsbury. (Getty)
Jeremy Vine arrives at the Curzon in Bloomsbury. (Getty) (Ian West - PA Images via Getty Images)

Read more: Jeremy Vine rushed to hospital after falling off penny-farthing bicycle

He added: "Previously, years gone by, I would have come into work with this – you can walk, you can work. Obviously that’s not possible now."

Vine also said that all of the presenters that work on his Channel 5 show had also caught it: "Going by our shows, out of the presenters, 100% of our presenters have got it."

He went on to criticise the government for not doing anything to prevent infections and protect vulnerable people: "That means there must be a lot of it about. Why isn’t the government mentioning it?

"Why isn’t the government saying: anyone vulnerable, you know, stay indoors. Look at my test, there’s a big red line there. There’s a lot of it around."

Jeremy Vine with rainbow pictures sent in by viewers of his Channel 5 show, on display in the windows of the ITN building, in central London, in tribute to the key workers battling the coronavirus outbreak. (Photo by Dominic Lipinski/PA Images via Getty Images)
Jeremy Vine with rainbow pictures sent in by viewers of his Channel 5 show. (Getty) (Dominic Lipinski - PA Images via Getty Images)

Vine was also critical of the government's messaging around the virus now that all restrictions have been lifted: "Shouldn’t they be saying 'Lock up your daughters' or 'tie your mother down' or you know, just stay in if you are vulnerable. But we’ve not heard a peep. I guess they’re too busy."

Vine's co-presenter Storm Huntley is also off the air with the virus and is just a month away from giving birth.

BBC television and radio presenter Jeremy Vine leaves the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) studios in central London on July 19, 2017.
Britain's public broadcaster BBC came under fire on Wednesday for its gender pay imbalance after it was forced to reveal how much it pays its top-earning talent. For the first time in its 94-year existence, the BBC was this year forced to release a list of its employees paid more than £150,000 ($195,000, 170,000 euros) between 2016/2017, after a change in its charter last year. Vine was one of more than 200 names that fetured on the list -- which includes executives, actors, presenters, writers and technicians. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS        (Photo credit should read DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP via Getty Images)
Jeremy Vine leaves the British Broadcasting Corporation studios. (Getty Images) (AFP Contributor via Getty Images)

The duo are currently being covered by Trisha Goddard, Anne Diamond and Claudia-Liza Vanderpuije.

The Jeremy Vine Show airs weekdays on Channel 5 between 9:15-12:15.

Watch below: Jeremy Vine suggests Russian soldiers 'probably deserve to die'.

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