The government minister Nadine Dorries has said that being diagnosed with Covid-19 was like “iced water trickling down my spine”.
Ms Dorries, 62, has since revealed that her 84-year-old mother has also tested positive for the disease.
The health minister has been in self-isolation since it was confirmed she was carrying pathogen, and has written in The Sunday Times that finding out she had it was a "game-changer".
She had not been abroad and had not been in contact with anyone who had.
The MP for Mid Bedfordshire also wrote of her fears for her mother who “is not in the best of health”.
She wrote in the paper of her diagnosis: “I stopped listening for a second as the thought flew through my mind: my mum is going to get it and it’s my fault. I had brought Covid-19 home from Westminster and had unwittingly passed it on to her.
“It felt as though the clocks had stopped. I knew that everything was about to change and I wanted to hold time where it stood.”
She said her symptoms included a persistent cough, achy muscles and intermittent night sweats.
Ms Dorries, best known by many for her stint on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here, advised people to think of everything as being contaminated.
She said: “Every lift button, shopping-trolley handle, wait-button on a zebra crossing – and every cup in a cafe.
"Wash your hands for 20 seconds. Carry hand-sanitiser and use it over and over. Resist the urge to hug or shake hands with anyone.”
