The UK had enough data on Covid-19 to go into lockdown on 16 March 2020 – a week earlier than Boris Johnson told Britain to stay at home, the government’s chief scientific adviser has said.
With the benefit of hindsight, Angela McLean said lockdown should have been imposed a full fortnight earlier, but that the government and its scientists didn’t have the data at that point. By 16 March, however, that data was available, McLean told the UK’s Covid-19 inquiry today.
“Given what we knew about how fast this epidemic was spreading… I think there was enough information on that date to say: ‘We need to stop all non-essential contact,’” said McLean, who was made a Dame in the 2018 Queen's birthday honours list.
