Covid: Stockton mayor's warning after surviving virus

Mohammed Javed spent nine days in intensive care at Stockton's North Tees Hospital

A mayor who survived Covid-19 and spent nine days in intensive care has urged people to take the virus seriously.

Mohammed Javed took on the ceremonial role for Stockton in June, becoming the first Asian man to hold the post.

Describing his virus ordeal, Mr Javed said he felt like "somebody was pounding" on him and he couldn't lift himself up.

He thanked medical staff at North Tees Hospital and said he was "very touched" by messages of support.

One of those who wished him well, calling for prayers while he was in hospital, was the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.

Mr Javed, who became Stockton's first Asian councillor in 2007, had been about to travel to Pakistan to celebrate his mayoral appointment when was taken ill.

"Believe me, [Covid] is really serious, we need to take care to save ourselves and to save others," he said.

"I was feeling as though somebody was pounding on me and pushing me down and down and down, and you try and lift yourself up and move, and you can't do that.

"My wife spoke to me, she said we have received so many messages. It was overwhelming, I was very touched by the amount of messages I received."

Mr Javed, Labour and Co-operative councillor for Parkfield & Oxbridge, was appointed mayor during a virtual council meeting.

Councillors heard when he was younger he had relocated from Karachi in Pakistan to Abu Dhabi, where he worked to put his brother - now a Middlesbrough GP - through medical school.

Mr Javed later worked for the NHS in England, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.