By Actuality Verify groupBBC Informationpicture copyrightEPAThe prime minister's former chief particular adviser, Dominic Cummings spent seven hour
By Actuality Verify group
BBC Information
picture copyrightEPAThe prime minister’s former chief particular adviser, Dominic Cummings spent seven hours giving proof to parliamentary committees in regards to the authorities’s response to the pandemic.
Mr Cummings was extremely crucial about insurance policies and people – together with the Well being Secretary Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson.
We have appeared on the context round a few of his claims.
“We had been instructed categorically in March that individuals could be examined earlier than they went again to care properties. We solely subsequently discovered that that hadn’t occurred.”
Mr Cummings claimed that Matt Hancock had instructed him and the prime minister that individuals had been going to be examined earlier than they had been despatched again from hospitals to care properties.
He’s appropriate that this didn’t occur till effectively into April, however we will not confirm what Mr Hancock stated to Mr Cummings and Mr Johnson on the time. A spokesperson for the well being secretary has rejected the claims.
On 19 March, NHS steerage stated that “until required to be in hospital, sufferers should not stay in an NHS mattress”.
This coverage was carried out to release beds upfront of an anticipated surge in coronavirus sufferers.
On 2 April, the principles on discharging to care properties had been clarified, saying “unfavourable [coronavirus] assessments aren’t required previous to transfers/admissions into the care house”.
It wasn’t till 15 April that the federal government stated that every one sufferers discharged from hospitals could be examined for coronavirus.
By this time, an estimated 25,000 sufferers had been discharged to care properties. In July, Panorama gathered knowledge from 39 hospital trusts, which confirmed three-quarters of individuals discharged had been untested.
There had been greater than 40,000 deaths of care house residents involving Covid-19 in England and Wales as much as 2 April 2021.
You possibly can learn extra in regards to the early steerage right here.
picture copyrightGetty Photographs“I began getting calls and quantity 10 had been getting calls saying ‘Hancock is interfering with the constructing of the take a look at and hint system as a result of he’s telling everyone what to do to maximise his probabilities of hitting his silly goal by the top of the month'”
Final yr, the well being secretary set a goal of hitting 100,000 assessments a day by the top of April 2020.
The federal government introduced on 1 Might that this had been reached however as we identified that determine included 40,000 assessments that had been within the put up to individuals (who hadn’t subsequently truly used them). This resulted in criticism from the official statistics watchdog.
The variety of assessments was beneath 20,000 a day for many of April, however accelerated quickly within the final week of the month. It was about 50,000 on 29 April, 80,000 on 30 April after which over 120,000 on 1 Might.
Mr Cummings additionally alleges that to achieve the 100,000 determine, Matt Hancock was calling individuals asking them to “maintain assessments again so I can hit my goal”.
Mr Hancock’s spokesperson say he rejects Mr Cummings’ claims.
“One of many crucial issues that was utterly improper in the entire official considering… in February-March was: Initially, the British public won’t settle for a lockdown. Secondly, the British public won’t settle for what was regarded as an east Asian-style observe and trace-type system”
Mr Cummings was responding to a query about his earlier criticism of recommendation from behavioural scientists.
However minutes from a gathering of the behavioural science advisers, SPI-B on 12 March counsel they thought individuals would settle for restrictions.
They be aware: “Expectations of how the Authorities will react shall be set by media studies of public well being methods in different nations. This will increase the chance of public concern if interventions which are perceived to be efficient aren’t utilized”.
Based on YouGov polling, on 27 March 2020, a day after a nationwide lockdown was imposed, 74% of the general public accredited of quarantining anybody who had “been involved with a contaminated affected person”.
The identical ballot discovered 67% approval in Singapore however over 80% in Malaysia. UK public assist for cancelling giant occasions was larger, forward of European nations equivalent to France, Italy and Germany, in addition to east Asian nations equivalent to Hong Kong and Malaysia
The proportion of individuals saying they had been complying with lockdown guidelines had been additionally excessive. Based on College Faculty London’s ongoing Covid Social Research, compliance with authorities pointers truly peaked in January this yr, when a 3rd nationwide lockdown was reintroduced.
Nevertheless, analysis on the variety of individuals following directions to self-isolate tells a unique story. A report by the Public Accounts Committee in March raised concern over a “lack of compliance” with Take a look at and Hint self-isolation guidelines, quoting “estimates of the proportion of individuals absolutely complying with necessities starting from 10% to 59%”.
picture copyrightReuters“Clearly, we must always have shut the borders in January [2020]”
Between January and March 2020, the UK launched some measures to guard itself from the brand new virus.
Quarantine was imposed on 273 arrivals from Wuhan in China whereas travellers from different components of China, Iran and Northern Italy had been requested to isolate voluntarily for 14 days.
These necessities had been withdrawn on 13 March, 10 days earlier than the primary lockdown began. Mr Cummings stated the recommendation to authorities had been that closing the borders would “basically don’t have any impact”.
A examine from Imperial Faculty later discovered {that a} third of Covid transmission had come from Spain and 29% from France (neither of which confronted restrictions), with hardly any coming from China.
Mr Cummings stated that after April 2020, there was “no correct border coverage” as a result of he claimed the prime minister did not need one.
The UK has solely considerably toughened its border coverage comparatively not too long ago – introducing quarantine inns for individuals arriving within the UK from high-risk nations in February 2021.
“[Taiwan] instantly closed the borders, they launched very strict quarantine methods, they did an entire bunch of issues proper off the bat in January”
Dominic Cummings repeatedly held Taiwan up as performing decisively early on within the pandemic.
Taiwan closed its borders to all guests from China on 23 January 2020 – as quickly as China stated there was proof of human-to-human transmission of Covid-19.
It additionally imposed necessary quarantine for all Taiwanese residents returning house. These measures are nonetheless in place.
Many of the island’s 23 million individuals had been additionally sporting face masks, even earlier than they had been required to take action.
Nevertheless, this month, Taiwan has seen a sudden rise in instances.
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