Britain ‘was not fully prepared for this type of pandemic’

THE UK was not fully prepared for a pandemic of this type, England’s deputy chief medical officer has said.

Dr Jenny Harries said more testing would have been carried out if tests were available earlier on, and knowledge about asymptomatic transmission could have resulted in a prompt recommendation to wear masks.

Speaking at the launch of the new UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), of which she is chief executive, Dr Harries told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We were not fully prepared for this pandemic and, as I’ve said, I’m very happy to accept there is an awful lot to learn. I think we share some of those failings with many other countries.”

Asked if the initial response to the pandemic was poor, she said: “I think it had merits and it had things that we would wish to improve.”

She said that while asymptomatic transmission had been “considered carefully”, the proportion of cases – now thought to be 30 per cent – was not recognised.

“So obviously the response that we put in place and some of the interventions were not accounting for that high degree of numbers of asymptomatic cases, so I think there’s learning as we’ve gone through.”

Asked about face coverings indoors, which were not initially recommended, she said: “We’ve learned more, as I’ve said, about asymptomatic transmission, and I think we would recommend face coverings earlier.”

Dr Harries said the issue around testing was that more tests were needed early on. Public Health England has been heavily criticised over a decision to stop community testing and contact tracing last March.

Dr Harries said: “We were using the 2,000 tests a day that we had – maximum – to save lives in the best way we could.”