Coronavirus in Scotland: Sturgeon says 'all of Scotland' willing Johnson on
- Published
Boris Johnson met Nicola Sturgeon in Edinburgh after he became Conservative Party leader
Scotland's first minister has said that all of Scotland is willing on Prime Minister Boris Johnson in his battle with coronavirus.
Nicola Sturgeon said the virus had made things that divide people in normal times now seem much less important.
She added that she and everyone else in the country was sending their best wishes to the prime minister, his fiancee and whole family.
Ms Sturgeon said: "We are all willing you on Boris. Get well soon".
The prime minister is said to be in good spirits after spending the night in a "stable" condition in intensive care.
He had been admitted to St Thomas' Hospital in central London with "persistent symptoms" of Covid-19 on Sunday, 10 days after testing positive for the virus,. He was moved to intensive care on Monday at 19:00 BST after his symptoms worsened.
A Downing Street spokesman said on Tuesday that the prime minister was receiving standard oxygen treatment and was breathing without any other assistance.
The spokesman added: "He has not required mechanical ventilation or non-invasive respiratory support", and said Mr Johnson does not have pneumonia.
A ventilator takes over the body's breathing process when disease has caused the lungs to fail.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will deputise for the prime minister where necessary while he is in hospital.
Speaking at her daily briefing, Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish government's cabinet had recorded its "very best wishes" to Mr Johnson in his "personal battle" with coronavirus when it met earlier on Tuesday.
Coronavirus: Nicola Sturgeon says says 'we are all willing you on Boris'
She said: "Right now all of us are just human beings united in a fight against this virus.
"And now, and I am sure I do this on behalf of all of Scotland, I want to send every good wish to him, to his fiancee and his whole family.
"We are all willing you on Boris - get well soon."
Ms Sturgeon said there were "continuity arrangements in place" which would see Deputy First Minister John Swinney step in if she was unable to work due to coronavirus.
She said she was "taking as many precautions as I reasonably can to reduce the risk of that", adding that she wants to be "leading this operation as effectively and as much on an ongoing basis as possible".
The first minister also revealed that the number of people in Scotland who have died after contracting coronavirus has risen by 74 to a total of 296.
Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme that Mr Johnson was a "fighter" who would be "enormously frustrated" at being in hospital.
Mr Carlaw said: "We all see him as a hugely ebullient and robust personality, somebody who will have been absolutely determined last week to lead from the front.
"In isolation that will have been very difficult. I suspect for all of us who are in isolation there is a sense all the time that you should be doing something, that you're waiting for something to happen.
"It's very difficult just to rest and yet, impossibly, resting a little more might have been of benefit. But he's a fighter so I fully expect that's exactly what he'll be doing just now."
Mr Carlaw also said that messages of support for Mr Johnson that had been coming from across the political spectrum had been "hugely appreciated" by everybody in the Conservative Party.
He added: "We really are all in this together and that has made a huge difference."
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- Published7 April 2020
