Boris Johnson said in an interview that doctors were not hopeful he would survive his bout with coronavirus and anticipated having to announce the British prime minister’s death, The Sun reported. The politician, who was admitted to the intensive care unit at St Thomas’ Hospital in London last month, explained that he needed “liters and liters of oxygen” to stay alive as he fought the virus. “It was a tough old moment, I won’t deny it. They had a strategy to deal with a ‘death of Stalin’-type scenario. I was not in particularly brilliant shape and I was aware there were contingency plans in place,” he said. “The doctors had all sorts of arrangements for what to do if things went badly wrong. It was hard to believe that in just a few days my health had deteriorated to this extent. I remember feeling frustrated. I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t getting better.”

Just over two weeks after he was discharged from the hospital, Johnson and his fiancee Carrie Symonds announced the birth of their son, Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas. Symonds has said their child was named after two doctors, Nicholas Price and Nicholas Hart, who were involved in the PM’s care.