The UK was “at least a week late” in imposing a national lockdown, according to one of the UK’s top health officials.
Earlier this week, the UK’s Covid-19 inquiry heard the “oscillating” and indecisiveness of Boris Johnson was to blame for delayed measures to fight the virus. But Christopher Wormald, the chief civil servant at the Department of Health and Social Care now and throughout the pandemic, has offered an alternative view, insisting the timeline of measures was – at the time – “completely rational”. He said it was only in hindsight that he believed the government was slow to respond.
Pointing to Johnson’s 16 March statement urging families to voluntarily limit non-essential travel and socialising, Wormald said there was “not long enough between it [the statement] and the national lockdown” to be able to observe any impact of the guidance.
