‘Iced water trickled down my spine’: Nadine Dorries describes emotional moment she tested positive for coronavirus and feared for her 84-year-old mother’s life as health minister reveals they are both on the mend
- Tory Health minister Nadine Dorries tested positive for coronavirus last week
- She said she felt ‘iced water trickling down my spine’ when she had found out
- She also described her fears after her 84-year-old mother also tested positive
- Ms Dorries said today they are both now on the mend and thankful for support
- She has urged people not to engage in panic buying, saying it is unnecessary
- Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
A Health minister who was the first MP to test positive for coronavirus said she felt ‘iced water trickling down my spine’ when she got the news.
Nadine Dorries said her immediate response to the diagnosis was to fear for the life of her 84-year-old mother who did subsequently test positive.
But today Ms Dorries revealed she and her mother are both on the mend as she thanked everyone who had sent them support.
She also suggested shoppers did not need to engage in panic buying of essential supplies like toilet paper as she said it had not been an issue during her household’s battle with the illness.
Nadine Dorries, pictured in the House of Commons on March 4, is now recovering after testing positive for coronavirus
Ms Dorries and her 84-year-old mother both tested positive but the health minister said today ‘our household has recovered’. The pair are pictured together in May 2018
Ms Dorries tweeted today: ‘Our household has recovered and we are so grateful for all the lovely comments and the support we received during the past week.’
She added: ‘Having lived through Coronavirus can I assure everyone that at no time during the seven days we were in isolation at home did we even once have to face a secondary crisis and run out of loo roll.’
Ms Dorries detailed her diagnosis and illness in a piece for The Sunday Times.
She said her positive test represented a ‘game-changer’ because she had not been abroad or come into contact with anyone who had the disease.
The MP for Mid Bedfordshire also wrote of her fears for her 84-year-old mother who ‘is not in the best of health’.
Referring to the moment she was told she had coronavirus, Ms Dorries said: ‘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.’
Ms Dorries said last week that her mother, who lives with her, was ‘made of strong stuff’ and ‘doing ok’ after testing positive.
She had tweeted at the time: ‘We have had my 84-year-old mum’s results through. She tested positive. She’s a pre war baby, doing ok. Made of strong stuff.’
Ms Dorries said her symptoms included a persistent cough, achy muscles and intermittent night sweats.
The Health minister, best known by many for her stint on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here, suggested people should think as if everything is contaminated in order to minimise their chances of infection.
Ms Dorries has also urged shoppers not to engage in panic-buying as she said a lack of toilet paper was not an issue during her seven days in isolation
‘Every lift button, shopping-trolley handle, wait-button on a zebra crossing – and every cup in a cafe,’ she said.
‘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.’
Ms Dorries said that the ‘public are scared and that is entirely understandable’.
‘The majority of people will be infected with Covid-19, but they will recover without experiencing significant discomfort,’ she said.
‘Some people may catch it and not even know they have it. The elderly are the most at risk and the most vulnerable.’