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Harry Dunn's stepfather has coronavirus symptoms and is isolating from his asthmatic wife after being hugged by Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who said he had tested positive on Friday.

Mr Hancock hugged and shook hands with Harry Dunn's family last week, according to a family spokesman.

Bruce Charles, Mr Dunn's stepfather, described Mr Hancock's behaviour as "beyond the pale".

Mr Charles told the PA news agency: "No wonder he is ill – having shown such little regard for the rules himself.”

“My main concern is Charlotte’s [his wife] health. She suffers from severe asthma".

Mr Hancock said on Friday that he had tested positive for coronavirus. He added that he would be working from home "with no less gusto".

And Mr Charles said that he began feeling coronavirus symptoms shortly before Mr Hancock's announcement.

“I am now left with no option but to isolate myself from [Charlotte] because of our encounter with Mr Hancock," he added.

“It is an outrage and compounds our misery when we had otherwise been following all the rules.”

Harry Dunn, 19, was killed when his bike was hit by a car near a US military base in Northamptonshire last August.

The ambulance only arrived 43 minutes after it was called.

The family met Mr Hancock on March 19 this year to discuss ambulance response times.

Radd Seiger, the spokesman for the Dunn family, said that the group had not followed social distancing guidelines in their meeting with Mr Hancock.

He posted on Twitter: "Thoughts with Matt Hancock but he irresponsibly failed to socially distance himself."

Mr Seiger said that Mr Hancock's behaviour at the meeting was not in line with Government advice on social distancing.

He said: “He walked around the table and firstly gave Bruce and [Harry's step-brother] Ciaran a full-on hug followed by a handshake.

Mr Seiger said that Mr Hancock had tried to hug him too - but, being aware of the need for social distancing, he slipped away.

He went on: “I could not believe what I had just witnessed and the three of us then left, utterly bewildered at what just happened.

“We had all been dragged down to London, for a waste of a meeting, in highly dangerous circumstances, to be confronted by the Health Secretary of all people who breached his Government’s own protocol.”

Mr Seiger said he is his wife's carer and his three children live with them.

He added: “I am appalled and disgusted that he should have behaved so recklessly and irresponsibly and jeopardised all our health.

“He would have had access to the same information at that time that we had – and he deliberately flouted it."

A Government spokesperson said that Mr Hancock was following current guidance at the time the meeting took place, as advice on social distancing was not published until March 23, four days after the meeting.

Scientists are still working out exactly how long you can have coronavirus before symptoms begin to appear.

A March study commissioned by the US Centre for Disease Control found that the average time between catching the disease and feeling unwell is five days - meaning Mr Hancock may not have had coronavirus when he met the Dunn family.

However, the incubation time for the disease can be as long as 14 days, which is why the NHS advises people living with someone who has the virus to self-isolate for two weeks after their symptoms started.

Mr Hancock's announcement comes on the same day that Prime Minister Boris Johnson also said he had tested positive for coronavirus with mild symptoms .

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said: “In Number 10 we have been observing the advice on social distancing…

“We have wherever possible been using video conferencing.”

He added: “We have been taking steps and following the same advice which we have given to the public."



The news comes on the same day that scientists have said that Mr Johnson and Mr Hancock's diagnoses are unsurprising.



Professor Susan Michie, a behavioural psychologist at University College London said: "Whilst the PM was telling people to stay at home and keep at least two metres apart from each other, the House of Commons was open for business and face-to-face parliamentary activities were carrying on.”

“Given the transmission routes of touching contaminated surfaces and breathing in virus-laden droplets, it should not come as a surprise to hear that the PM and Health Secretary have tested positive for coronavirus."