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Boris Johnson will return to work on Monday and will take over the management of the pandemic in the UK, a month after the coronavirus hit him.
The government has been without a leader since the prime minister was admitted to the hospital on April 5.
Since his release, he has been slowly backing up, having daily video calls with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and his Downing Street team, and speaking with his key medical advisers Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance.
“The prime minister has been doing the right thing and following his doctor’s advice to return to work,” said a Downing Street official. “He is eager to go.”
Johnson’s return comes at another critical juncture for the government, which has been put on the defensive since the Covid-19 crisis began. The death toll in the country, in hospitals alone, has exceeded 20,000, the fifth highest in the world, and business has slowed down.
Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, in an editorial in the widely circulated Sun newspaper on Saturday, tried to explain how the central bank was supporting the economy.
There is some evidence that Johnson’s experience at St. Thomas Hospital (he was admitted to the intensive care unit and credited the staff there that saved his life) has made him less enthusiastic in his attitude toward the virus.
When some European countries began closing procedures in mid-March, Johnson said at the time that such a reaction was unnecessary.
Fast forward a few weeks, and he is said to be particularly cautious about whether lifting social distancing measures would risk a second wave of the virus as daily cases have stabilized and deaths have begun to decline.
According to the Telegraph newspaper, travelers arriving in Britain will be quarantined for up to two weeks under a plan overseen by the Home Secretary, Priti Patel.
