Johnson defends Covid-19 plan as two-thirds say lockdown ‘too late’

Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended his government’s response to the novel coronavirus pandemic on Thursday, after a poll suggested two-thirds of British people thought strict social distancing measures were introduced “too late.”

“We have so far succeeded in the first and most important task we set ourselves as a nation: to avoid the tragedy that engulfed other parts of the world, because at no stage has our NHS (National Health Service) been overwhelmed,” Johnson told reporters.

“And it is thanks to that massive collective effort to shield the NHS that we avoided an uncontrollable and catastrophic epidemic where the reasonable worst-case scenario was 500,000 deaths,” he said.

Johnson admitted the government had found “logistical difficulties” in getting personal protective equipment (PPE) for health staff and “frustration” in its efforts to expand testing for the virus.

“We are throwing everything at it, night and day,” he said, suggesting that “global shortages in a global pandemic” had contributed to Britain’s inadequate PPE provision.

Johnson said some social distancing measures would have to continue until a Covid-19 vaccine is developed for mass use, stressing the need to avoid a “second bad spike” in infections.

He plans to “explain how we can get our economy moving,” in a speech next week, including measures for reopening schools and getting more people back to work.

Pollsters IpsosMORI said earlier Thursday that there was “a significant rise” in the number of respondents who agreed that the government had acted “too late,” from 57 per cent two weeks ago to 66 per cent in its latest poll of more than 1,000 people.

Many health experts and opposition politicians have accused the conservative government of a slow response to the crisis, and criticized Britain’s low level of testing and poor preparation for a pandemic.

Britain confirmed thousands of Covid-19-linked deaths in care homes on Wednesday, raising its death toll from the virus to 26,097, the second-highest in Europe behind Italy.

Opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer told parliament the death toll was “truly dreadful,” adding that time-lags in reporting meant the actual number of deaths was even higher.

Starmer disputed Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s claim on Monday that the government had achieved “apparent success” in its response to the pandemic.

“I think the largest error was not to treat this like a SARS- or MERS-like event, a virus that had to be contained no matter what,” Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at Edinburgh University Medical School, told broadcaster Channel 4.

Read also: Leading Democrats defend Biden after sexual assault allegation

“I think in early March we treated this virus too much like flu … that everyone would get it and we’d just have to manage the fall-out,” Sridhar said when asked why Britain appeared to be on track towards Europe’s highest Covid-19 death toll.

Britian only imposed a lockdown after it saw the “devastating” impact of the pandemic in Italy, she added.

But the later and potentially longer lockdown would have “astronomical” socio-economic costs, Sridhar said. (dpa)