Boris Johnson will not be tested for coronavirus despite meeting his Health Minister who has since tested positive for COVID-19.

A Downing Street source said a test was unnecessary because he had no symptoms.

The Health Minister Nadine Dorries was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Monday.

Other members of parliament who came into contact with the minister have gone into self-isolation.

Read the latest on how the virus is spreading across Britain.

LONDON — Boris Johnson will not be tested for coronavirus despite meeting just days ago with his Health Minister who has now been diagnosed with Covid-19.

Nadine Dorries, the health minister for patient safety who helped draw up plans to tackle coronavirus, fell ill on Friday and tested positive for the virus on Monday.

She had attended a function at Downing Street for the group Women in Westminster on Thursday evening, where Boris Johnson had also been present.

But a Downing Street source said there was no need for the prime minister to be tested because he had not been in close contact with Dorries and did not have any symptoms.

The source said: "We follow the advice of Public Health England and the CMO. The prime minister has no symptoms so there is no need for a test.



"The prime minister was not in close contact with Nadine Dorries. The advice is that you would have to be within 2 metres of someone to pass it on.

"It is also worth restating the advice on washing hands, which the prime minister does regularly."

The Labour MP Rachael Maskell said on Wednesday that she had placed herself in self-isolation following a meeting with Dorries.

Maskell, the MP for York Central, said she was not displaying any symptoms of coronavirus but had taken the precautionary measure after calling the UK's non-emergency medical hotline.

"I'm absolutely fine in myself but it's really important we follow the advice the experts are giving us," she said.