Weeks after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in intensive care with the coronavirus, he and his fiancée, Carrie Symonds, announced the birth of their son on Wednesday.
A government spokesman said that the baby was born healthy at a London hospital Wednesday morning and that the couple "would like the thank the fantastic NHS maternity team," referring to the National Health System.
Johnson, 55, spent a week in the intensive care unit and was released from the hospital on April 12, also thanking NHS staff "for saving my life."
Symonds, 32, an environmental activist and former official in Johnson's ruling Conservative Party, said she also had COVID-19 symptoms but was not tested.
Johnson has received criticism for his early handling of the crisis. Some experts say he waited too long to impose social restrictions and failed to adequately prepare the NHS and supply it with personal protective equipment.
The United Kingdom has had more than 20,000 people die in hospitals with COVID-19 — giving it one of the highest death tolls in Europe — with many more believed to have died in nursing homes.
For years Johnson's private life has been the subject of some speculation, fueled in part by his repeated refusal to say how many children he has.
He has been married twice before and fathered four children with his second wife. In 2013, when Johnson was mayor of London, appeal court judges ruled that the public had the right to know whether he had an extramarital affair with a woman who gave birth to his daughter.
This is his first child with Symonds, and their wedding would be the first for a sitting prime minister in some 250 years.
