A US woman who claims she was trafficked to the UK as a teenager to have sex with Prince Andrew is in hospital, where she has been tested for Covid-19.

Virginia Giuffre said on Twitter on Tuesday: “I’m so scared right now, having trouble breathing, fever & cough. Getting tested for Covid-19 praying it’s not positive.”

She posted a picture of herself wearing a mask and lying in a hospital bed. She thanked wellwishers and said she was sure she “would be fine”, but added that she hated hospitals and had had “quite a few bad experiences in my time”.

I’m so scared right now, having trouble breathing, fever & cough. Getting tested for Covid-19 praying it’s not positive 🙏 🦋 pic.twitter.com/GfAzxut82Q — Virginia Giuffre (@VRSVirginia) April 7, 2020

Giuffre, 35, who is based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, alleges she was trafficked to London while working for Prince Andrew’s friend Jeffrey Epstein. She heaped pressure on Andrew in December when she gave an interview to the BBC in which she repeated allegations that she had sex with the prince when she was 17.

She alleges this was done on the instructions of Ghislaine Maxwell, a socialite and close friend of Epstein, the US financier and sex offender who killed himself in August.

Andrew has categorically denied all claims of wrongdoing and maintains that he has “no recollection” of meeting Giuffre, although he was photographed with his arm around her.

Giuffre’s health fears have not stopped her from keeping up the pressure on the prince. In a separate comment on Tuesday, she railed against “BS answers” and said it was time to change laws around statutes of limitations.

Last month, a New York prosecutor said Andrew had “completely shut the door” on cooperating with US investigators in the Epstein case and his office was considering further options.

Andrew had said in November last year he was “willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations if required”.

In the December BBC interview, Giuffre said: “He knows what happened, I know what happened, and there’s only one of us telling the truth, and I know that’s me.”