British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said doctors were preparing a statement on his death during his hospitalization for the coronavirus.
“It was a tough old moment, I won’t deny it. They had a strategy to deal with a ‘death of Stalin’-type scenario,” he told the Sun, a British tabloid, on Sunday.
“I was not in particularly brilliant shape and I was aware there were contingency plans in place,” he said. “The doctors had all sorts of arrangements for what to do if things went badly wrong.”
The revelation suggests Johnson’s health was more dire than Downing Street led on.
The prime minister was hospitalized in early April, more than a week after he tested positive for the coronavirus. Downing Street said Johnson was admitted to the hospital as “a precautionary step” because his high fever and cough persisted. He was later moved to the intensive care unit as his condition worsened.
Johnson said he received “liters and liters” of oxygen, and doctors considered putting him on a ventilator.
“The bloody indicators kept going in the wrong direction,” he said. “But the bad moment came when it was 50-50 whether they were going to have to put a tube down my windpipe. That was when it got a bit … they were starting to think about how to handle it presentationally.”
Johnson was released from the hospital about a week after he was admitted.
