UK Covid inquiry: government accused of giving ‘very little’ advance thought to lockdown and being too focused on flu – live

Government planning for Brexit, and no deal, in 2019, may have weakened pandemic preparedness, inquiry counsel suggests

Inquiry will consider whether collapse in power sharing affected pandemic planning in Northern Ireland, Keith says

Keith is again referring to the emergency planning flowchart cited earlier. (See 11.13am.)

It shows that local resilience forums were often in the lead. But was that the right approach, he asks.

He also points out that there are bodies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland duplicating what UK bodies are doing.

Government gave ‘very little thought’ in advance to prospect of lockdown being needed in pandemic, says inquiry counsel

Government pandemic planning put too much focus on threat from flu, inquiry counsel suggests

At the Covid inquiry Hugo Keith KC, counsel to the inquiry, is now talking specifically about the government’s preparedness. He says:

It is obvious that the degree to which Covid-19 could be prevented from laying waste to society was a matter within the control of government. And the systems for the EPR [emergency preparedness and response] existed … Systems may not be able to stop a pandemic in its tracks, but they ought to be able to put in place measures of understanding of virus, understanding and forecasting how it might develop, tracking it, limiting transmission and coping with the consequences of large-scale transmission.

Keith then shows a diagram showing how the system was supposed to work. This is from the Times’ Tom Whipple.

Keith is now talking about the impact of lockdown.

Almost every area of public life across all four nations, including education, work, travel, the majority of public services and family life, were adversely affected.

The hospitality, retail, travel and tourism, arts and culture, and the sport and leisure sectors effectively ceased. Even places of worship closed.

For very many, what they had to deal with when far beyond the curtailment of their normal lives and involve bereavement, serious illness, deprivation, mental illness, exposure to violence at home, terrible financial loss, loneliness, and many other forms of suffering.

Keith says the UK had not prepared for a non-flu pandemic.

That was relevant to testing capacity, he says. With flu, testing is less necessary, he suggests, because with flu you are more likely to show symptoms.

You know you have a bug, you go home possibly to bed and you try not to pass it on and tests aren’t needed.

UK ‘might not have been very well prepared at all’ for Covid pandemic in advance, inquiry’s counsel says

Covid inquiry to focus on issues that have caused ‘greatest public concern’ in UK, its counsel, Hugo Keith KC, says

Heather Hallett, the inquiry chair, asks attendants to tell people who left the room because they were going to find the video too upsetting that they can now return.

She says the film was distressing for everyone, but would have been particularly distressing for relatives.

The video ends with a woman saying that, in order to move on, relatives have to know lessons will be learned from the inquiry.

A woman says it “really hurts” not being able to give someone a proper funeral, and make their “final journey lovely”. She is almost in tears.

Another woman says she still suffers from anxiety, and still wears her mask wherever she goes.

And another woman says, in Caribbean culture, hundreds of people attend a funeral. In her case, only 20 people were allowed. And the body was sealed in a bag. The family were not even allowed to break the lock on it.

A woman from Northern Ireland says in Northern Ireland wakes are important part of the grieving process. She says she cannot go to the cemetery now, because it reminds her of the workers in white suits and masks at the funeral, telling them their time was up. Her mother did not get a celebration of her life, she says. She says she feels that she failed her as a result.

A man recalls calling 999 when he was really ill. He woke up again in hospital. When he did wake up, he learned his wife had died. They had been married for 48 years.

A woman recalls her father’s funeral. There were just 15 people there. She did not hug anyone, from when she learned her father was dying until after the funeral. It was a very lonely time. Grief was compounded by loneliness, she says.

A woman recalls taking her mother to hospital. They “waited and waited and waited”. Then a doctor called, who just announced that her mother had passed away. She was expecting to go and see her again, but she was told she had died.

The video features multiple clips from participants. The woman who was featured earlier, talking about her father and sisted dying within five days of each other, is talking about the moment her sister died.

A woman, Jane, recalls her father being taken to hospital. She accompanied him, and urged her dad “to be the strongest you’ve every been”.

Another woman recalls being so ill she was “spitting blood”. She went to hospital, and was taken to ICU where she was intubated. She woke up six weeks later. On three occasions she was so unwell they stopped treatment. But slowly and steadily she recovered.

The video is being shown now. It features interviews with members of the public recalling their experience of the pandemic. One woman recalls, at the start of the pandemic, discussing with her boss how they would know people who would die as the pandemic developed. But she never realised it would be “my dad and my sister five days apart”, she says, holding back tears.