Boris admits there are ‘many things’ he’d have done differently in last year
The prime minister has admitted there are ‘many things that we wish we’d done differently’ during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking exactly a year after the nation was plunged into lockdown for the first time, Boris Johnson said his Government is ‘continuing to learn’ how to navigate the country through the virus.
The prime minister told a Downing Street press briefing: ‘There are probably many things that we wish that we’d known and many things that we wish we’d done differently at the time, in retrospect, because we were fighting a novel disease under very different circumstances than any previous government had imagined.
‘I think the single biggest false assumption that we made was about the potential for asymptomatic transmission.
‘And that did govern a lot of policy in the early days, or that misunderstanding about the reality of asymptomatic transmission certainly led to real problems that we then really had to work very, very hard to make up ground.
‘We’ve been learning the whole time and we’re continuing to learn.’
Professor Chris Whitty made the grim admission that it ‘wasn’t until people started getting into hospital and dying’ that they had a ‘better fix’ on how fast the virus was spreading across Europe.
‘In retrospect we now know with the amount of importation from Spain and France and Italy, we had a problem,’ said the chief medical officer.
‘That would almost certainly have led to slightly different approaches.’
Chief Scientific Advisor Sir Patrick Vallance agreed that he wished ‘we knew then what we know now’, adding that much better data was required early on through testing – something that was initially only administered to people admitted to hospital.
Despite the comments, the PM defended current measures at the border amid amid a surge in Covid-19 infections across Europe.
However, he warned we must be ‘very very wary of the potential for a third wave’ and did not rule out further restrictions on travel in a bid to keep new variants out.
Their comments came after the nation held a minute’s silence to honour the 126,284 people who have died in the UK during the pandemic this afternoon.
The prime minister said a permanent memorial to honour those who have died will be built at the ‘right moment’ and the ‘whole period’ will be commemorated, as he praised NHS and social care workers for their heroic efforts.
Pictures from across the country today showed MPs and peers in both Houses of Parliament, ministers in the devolved nations, and NHS and social care workers pausing for reflection.
The Queen also reflected on the ‘grief and loss felt by so many’, as she paid tribute to staff at St Bartholomew’s, the London hospital where the Duke of Edinburgh had heart surgery.
More than 28.3 million people have now received the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine – an incredible medical feat that experts warned may never be possible a year ago.
Meanwhile, a total of 2.3 million people have been fully immunised with their second dose.
Thousands today had their own moments of remembrance by sharing pictures of their pre-pandemic lives on social media with the hashtag #lastnormalphoto.
This evening, members of the public are also being asked to mark the prominence of March 23 by standing on their doorsteps at 8pm with a candle or light.
The London Eye, Tate Britain, Blackpool Tower, the Scottish Parliament, Belfast City Hall and other buildings will also be lit in yellow tonight.
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