Nadine Dorries says positive Covid-19 diagnosis was a ‘game-changer’
Health minister Nadine Dorries said confirmation she had contracted the coronavirus was like “iced water trickling down my spine”.
Ms Dorries is self-isolating at home after testing positive for Covid-19 earlier this week and wrote in the Sunday Times of the news being a “game-changer” as she had not been abroad or come into contact with anyone who had.
The MP for Mid Bedfordshire also wrote of her fears for her 84-year-old mother who “is not in the best of health”.
Thanks for so many good wishes. It’s been pretty rubbish but I hope I’m over the worst of it now. More worried about my 84yo mum who is staying with me and began with the cough today. She is being tested tomorrow. Keep safe and keep washing those hands, everyone.
— Nadine Dorries 🇬🇧 (@NadineDorries) March 10, 2020
She wrote in the paper of her diagnosis: “I stopped listening for a second as the thought flew through my mind: my mum is going to get it and it’s my fault. I had brought Covid-19 home from Westminster and had unwittingly passed it on to her.
“It felt as though the clocks had stopped. I knew that everything was about to change and I wanted to hold time where it stood.”
She said her symptoms included a persistent cough, achy muscles and intermittent night sweats.
Ms Dorries, best known by many for her stint on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here, advised people to think of everything as being contaminated.
She said: “Every lift button, shopping-trolley handle, wait-button on a zebra crossing – and every cup in a cafe. Wash your hands for 20 seconds. Carry hand-sanitiser and use it over and over. Resist the urge to hug or shake hands with anyone.”