Matt Hancock says earlier first Covid lockdown could have stopped 90% of first wave deaths
by Nina Lloyd and Robert Dex
Nov 30, 2023
4 minutes
Matt Hancock said the UK should have gone into lockdown three weeks before it did which would have saved "many, many lives".
The former health secretary told the pandemic inquiry he regarded February 28 2020 as the “moment that the centre of Government, led by the Prime Minister, really started to come into action”.
He said "with hindsight" the UK should have locked down when Italy did in February but added that at that time there was still "enormous uncertainty" about the scale of the pandemic.
He said: "The number of cases was still very low, in fact, there were only 12 cases reported on March 1, and the costs of what I’m proposing were known and huge.
"So I defend the
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