The government was too slow to react on several fronts to the novel coronavirus outbreak that could cause the deaths of 40 000 people in the United Kingdom, a leading public health professor told lawmakers.
Lodon - The British government was too slow to react on several fronts to the novel coronavirus outbreak that could cause the deaths of 40 000 people in the United Kingdom, a leading public health professor told lawmakers on Friday.
"Where were the system errors that led us to have probably the highest death rates in Europe?" Anthony Costello, professor of International Child Health and Director of the UCL Institute for Global Health, asked at the Health and Social Care Committee. The government also faced separate criticism over its supply of Personal Protective Equipment for health workers.
Britain has the fifth-highest official death toll from Covid-19 in the world, after the United States, Italy, Spain and France, though the UK figure only covers hospital fatalities and the real number is probably much higher. "The recent estimates, even from the chief scientific officer, is that after this wave - we could see 40,000 deaths by the time it's over - we could only have maybe 10%, 15% of the population infected or covered," he said.
"It is part of the strategy - we will be introducing it when we can," he told the parliamentary committee.
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