UK PM Johnson admits govt didn’t understand Covid-19 in first weeks, months

He said there were “very open questions” about whether the lockdown had started too late, adding that there were lessons to be learned and that ministers could have done some things “differently”.

After over 45,600 deaths and nearly 3 lakh cases in the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday night admitted that the government did not understand the coronavirus in the first few weeks and months, adding things could have been done differently.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits the Tollgate Medical Centre in Beckton, London. (REUTERS)

The UK has registered the worst death toll in Europe and one of the highest in the world, with questions swirling over the Johnson government’s handling of the situation: from initial ideas about ‘herd immunity’, a late lockdown (on March 23) and a track-and-trace system.

Johnson, who recovered after being severely infected by the virus, told the BBC in an interview to mark the first anniversary of his entering Downing Street that “we didn’t understand (the virus) in the way that we would have liked in the first few weeks and months”.

He said there were “very open questions” about whether the lockdown had started too late, adding that there were lessons to be learned and that ministers could have done some things “differently”. He has promised an independent inquiry into the handling of the pandemic.

He said: “Maybe there were things we could have done differently, as I’ve said, and of course there will be time to understand what exactly we could have done, or done differently. But what I think the public wants us to do now is to focus on getting the preparations ready for what, as I say, could be a resurgence of the virus this winter.”

The number of deaths and cases have come down in recent weeks, prompting the government to ease lockdown and reopen large sectors of the economy, besides picking up 80 per cent of the salary bill of private sector employees and paying similar grants to the self-employed.

Labour has accused the Johnson government of ‘mishandling’ the crisis. Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “Boris Johnson has finally admitted the government has mishandled its response to the coronavirus. It was too slow to acknowledge the threat of the virus, too slow to enter lockdown and too slow to take this crisis seriously.”

On the death toll, which the Office for National Statistics has put at over 50,000, Johnson said in the interview: “We mourn every one of the of those who lost their lives and our thoughts are very much with their with their families. And I take full responsibility for everything that government did.”

Johnson, who took over after Theresa May resigned and won the Conservative leadership contest last July, later won a comfortable majority in the December election on the back of the slogan of ‘Get Brexit done’. He admitted that the outbreak of coronavirus had caused ‘many difficulties’.