Too little, too slow? UK's response to coronavirus crisis questioned

Boris Johnson visits Mologic lab in Bedfordshire to announce £46m funding for testing kits on March 6 before, five days later, suspending the UK programme of testing and contact tracing

The shambolic suspension of Britain’s testing strategy in March is key to the country having the highest death toll in Europe, experts said yesterday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson insists he took the “right decisions at the right time” but last week admitted he suspended the so-called containment phase on March 11 because the testing programme could not cope. The suspension of testing and contact tracing is now seen as a critical factor in UK deaths climbing above 30,000.

As concern mounts that the UK Government was initially complacent, focus is on the days between the suspension of testing and tracing and the imposition of a full lockdown on March 23. Yesterday, one expert said decisions made pre-lockdown may have contributed to Britain’s death rate. Professor Paul Hunter, from the University of East Anglia, said: “I don’t think March 11 to 23 were the best for public health.”

After testing of suspected cases was suspended, the virus spread undetected across Britain. Tedros Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organisation, said the decision meant the UK was “fighting a fire blindfolded”.

Sources have suggested ministers pursued a policy of “herd immunity”, despite little scientific evidence it could be effective, because they believed little could be done to prevent the virus spreading.

The policy was reversed after an Imperial College report warned that, left to spread unchecked, Covid-19 could kill 250,000 in Britain.