As reported by The Standard, Matt Hancock asserts quicker lockdown action could have prevented school closures during the pandemic, emphasising the importance of early interventions to curb Covid-19 spread and mitigate the economic and health impact
The former Health Secretary said he argued for tougher restrictions from September 2020 amid rising numbers of cases of Covid-19, and believes the UK was too slow to lockdown during the autumn of that year.
He said there was an increasing battle among MPs to “win the argument” over lockdowns, with campaigns against them growing in strength.
A second lockdown was ultimately ordered at the start of November 2020, and a third national lockdown began in January 2021.
Mr Hancock told the Public Inquiry: “I think if we had taken action sooner in September 2020 we might have avoided the need to close schools.
“In the end we had to do so because cases were so high by January (2021).”
He described the third lockdown as “harrowing”, as Covid cases continued to rise despite tough restrictions due to the emergence of a new variant.
“If you don’t lockdown early, you have a tougher lockdown with more economic damage, as well as greater numbers of deaths and more damage to the health of the nation”, he added.
Mr Hancock was accused earlier in the Inquiry of imposing a “punishment beating” on Manchester by placing it into Tier 3 restrictions in 2020, despite privately admitting that those measures “would not work”.
Manchester mayor Andy Burnham gave evidence of his anger at the revelation, but Mr Hancock suggested the Labour politician had caused the situation himself.
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