Greater Manchester MP in Hospital After Positive COVID-19 Test

Greater Manchester MP in Hospital After Positive COVID-19 Test
An ambulance drives over Westminster Bridge with the Houses of Parliament in the background in London on April 6, 2020. (Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images)
Simon Veazey
10/19/2020
Updated:
10/19/2020

An MP from Greater Manchester, Yasmin Qureshi, is currently in hospital with pneumonia after contracting COVID-19.

In an announcement on Facebook, Qureshi said she was admitted to Royal Bolton Hospital on Saturday.

Qureshi is MP for Bolton East.

The 57-year-old Labour MP said that she tested positive for the CCP virus after feeling unwell two weeks ago. “My family and I immediately self-isolated at home. I have not travelled to Westminster or anywhere else,” she said.

She said that after 10 days of working remotely, she began to feel much worse.

“I’m being very well looked after and have nothing but praise and admiration for the wonderful staff at the hospital. They have been amazing throughout the process and I would like to extend my thanks to everyone working here in such difficult circumstances,” she said.

Constituents can get in touch with her staff as normal, she added.

Her constituency is one of a total of 27 that fall within the Greater Manchester region and would be subject to the Tier 3 restrictions that the central government wants to impose.

Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is currently in negotiations with Westminster over the possible shift to the highest alert level in the new system.

Local politicians have opposed the government’s new approach.

Another Bolton MP, Chris Green, last week resigned as a ministerial aide in protest of the UK government’s pandemic lockdown policies, saying that the “attempted cure is worse than the disease”.
He said that the measures covering his constituency in Bolton had failed to control the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, adding that hospital referrals had dropped by 20,000 compared to the previous year because people were “too frightened” of accessing “vital treatment”.
“We are creating many other health problems that are leading to pain, suffering, and death,” Green wrote in his Oct. 13 resignation letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

A number of other MPs have caught the virus, including most notably the prime minister and Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

MP Margaret Ferrier was kicked out of the Scottish Independence Party after she admitted to taking a train after testing positive.

London police last week said that they had dropped their investigation into whether Ferrier had broken laws on self-isolation.

They said their investigation revealed that she made the journey before the relevant legislation in England had come into force.

The Metropolitan Police said that they had referred the case to police in Scotland, where different restrictions and laws have been enacted to tackle the pandemic.

Police Scotland responded with a brief statement, saying, “We will now assess the circumstances and consult with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service before taking a decision on next steps.”
Simon Veazey is a UK-based journalist who has reported for The Epoch Times since 2006 on various beats, from in-depth coverage of British and European politics to web-based writing on breaking news.
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