Susanna Reid is self-isolating after someone in her household began showing symptoms of coronavirus.
The 49-year-old television presenter has announced that whilst she is not sick herself, she will be staying at home for two weeks in order to make sure she isn’t spreading the virus after a member of her family began displaying symptoms of the flu-like respiratory illness.
On Monday evening (March 16), she tweeted: “I am currently well but due to the new advice today I will be self-isolating for two weeks due to symptoms in my household. Stay well everyone.”
Read more: Idris Elba has tested positive for coronavirus
Susanna’s self-isolation means she won’t be appearing on Good Morning Britain for at least two weeks.
Her co-host on the show, Piers Morgan, responded to the news by quoting her tweet and adding his own crying emoji.
On this morning’s show, Susanna called in via video call to discuss her decision to self-isolate.
She said: “One of the boys, one of the children, has a persistent cough and that came on yesterday.
“Suddenly with these new drastic action measures, that changed yesterday afternoon, it meant if even one member of your household had either the persistent cough or a fever then you would all have to go into self-isolation for 14 days.
Susanna isn’t with us today, she’s self-isolating for the next 14 days due to symptoms in her family – not because of Piers.@susannareid100 | @piersmorgan | #GMB pic.twitter.com/MMlwRbaWkw
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) March 17, 2020
“So that means immediately, I thought, ‘I can’t go into work and work with you guys for 14 days’.
“All the children are off and we are effectively two households, because like many families we are a separated family so we have two households who have gone into self-isolation.
“I am very, very lucky, I am paid when I’m sick. There are people who are self-employed who will face this decision if one of their household is ill.
I am in isolation with my family in order to suppress potential infection.
“There are people who will not be paid sick pay because they are on zero hours contracts and there will be people who will be paid statutory sick pay but it won’t be enough to pay their bills… I’m in a very privileged position.”
She added: “I am in isolation with my family in order to suppress potential infection, if there are people who feel they cannot afford to do the same thing, how is that suppression strategy going to work?
Read more: Denise Welch rants Piers Morgan should self-isolate for two years amid coronavirus crisis
“It’s very frustrating not to be able to test for it… this could be a rolling 14 day quarantine.
“These symptoms could disappear after 24 hours. Then somebody else might pick up some of the symptoms.
“I have a perfectly normal temperature, as do all of my children. I do not have a cough, I have no symptoms. I’m not feeling fatigued, I feel 100% healthy.”
Her co-star Piers asked how she would cope with enforced time off and Susanna admitted: “I love my work, I love coming into work, I love the daily battles, I love the challenge. I’m going to really miss that for two weeks.”
The virus has killed more than 7,000 people globally, including 55 deaths in the UK.
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