Coronavirus: Gloria Hunniford pleads with public to remain in isolation

In a video distributed on the Department of Health’s social media channels, the Loose Women host, who grew up in Portadown, pleaded with viewers to remain in isolation.

Speaking from her home in Kent, she said: “I know that these are very hard, unprecedented times, and how many times have we heard that on the television?

“But it is difficult, I’ve been in isolation now for about nearly three weeks and it isn’t easy at the beginning but in a weird way I think you get more into the rhythm of it as the time goes on but we have to stick to the advice – that’s the important point of being in touch with you today.”

The 79-year-old star acknowledged that although it will be difficult, we must stay indoors to protect the NHS.

“Hard though it is sometimes, we have to do it. We have to do it for our own health, for the health of our families, for the health of everything around us and particularly the NHS.

“I am in so much admiration of what the NHS is doing now. All the doctors, nurses, everybody who works around the hospital and all those tens of thousands of people who are going back into the NHS having retired or having left for whatever reason.”

She added: “I want to say thank you, thank you for looking after all of us and I plead with you again to do whatever it is we have to do to keep safe.

“Stay in your own home, stay in your own isolation and do what the government is telling us for our own good long term.

‘‘So I’m sending you much love and keep washing those hands.”

The TV presenter previously said she was terrified she and her husband’s underlying health conditions make them more at risk from coronavirus.

‘‘I am pre-diabetic, so when I listened to all the research I thought I had to take action,” she explained, adding that her husband Stephen Way “had a very bad medical year last year and is still in recovery so we have to be very careful”.

Their ages also put them in the high-risk group for Covid-19, which is more deadly for older people.

The broadcaster, who has been taking part in the ITV show Loose Women via video link from her home, told co-host Andrea McLean: “You know my work ethic I’ll crawl to the studio if I have to but when I realised my grandsons and sons are working from home, they put a bit of pressure on me.”