Judge Rinder refused to pay for private coronavirus test when NHS staff couldn't get them
Judge Rinder refused to pay for a coronavirus test when he was displaying symptoms because NHS staff had not been given access to them.
The 41-year-old TV presenter and lawyer believes he has had COVID-19 and spent 20 days in self-isolation after suffering a high fever and a persistent cough.
Private tests are available at a price, but the government has not yet provided frontline NHS staff with tests to enable them to learn whether or not they have immunity to the disease.
Rinder told This Morning: “I'm just through the other side of it. It's been 20 days. And I feel well now.
"I think I did [have coronavirus] but because front-line NHS staff can’t get tests I refused to pay for one. But I’m sure I'm fine.
He described his symptoms as: “Terrible temperature, appalling cough and lying with my feet on the ground. My head on the bed, in a coma watching the Kardashians. So I must have been really ill."
Actor Idris Elba received some criticism after revealing he had tested positive for COVID-19 – using a private test he had paid for.
The Luther star said: “I think the debate about rich and poor and who’s getting it and who’s not, I think, is not a healthy debate.
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"It’s like, I got a test but I also got Covid. Does that make me preferential? I don’t understand that.”
Meanwhile, Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder believes he has had coronavirus, but joked he is used to self-isolation.
The 57-year-old singer and recovered drug addict lives with wife Joanne and and three of his children – Oliver, 26, Pearl, 12, and Lulu, 11.
Ryder told Sky News he and has wife had been ill three weeks ago.
He said: "I'm pretty sure we've had it. We had symptoms of it. I mean, nothing puts my missus in bed; no matter what, she'll still get up even if she's dying, but this floored her. She was in bed for over a week.
"She had pretty much everything they said: couldn't move, found it hard breathing. Then I went down with the old headaches and flu-type symptoms. I had no energy but nothing that I'd go to A&E with, I coped with it at home.
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"So, you know, I think a lot of people have had it [but not been confirmed]."
The 24 Hour Party People singer is hoping to learn chess while in self-isolation and apart from work is used to staying at home.
Ryder quipped: "I'm sure if I was 21 or even 29 and this was happening, I don't think I could stick to it.
"Although I just thought, I was addicted to heroin at that time so actually I could probably just sit in the chair and nod off all day."
Other celebrities to have tested positive for coronavirus include former Emmerdale star Linda Lusardi, Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks and his actress wife Rita Wilson and former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko.