First submissions to Covid-19 inquiry note key England Covid-19 mistakes

The Guardian reports on submissions made to an inquiry run by the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus, which has received 900 submissions from individuals, charities and public bodies in two weeks. The Age UK submission noted a lack of protective equipment, inadequate testing, and discharging people from hospitals into care homes were the key mistakes made by the government.

The charity also described the initial policy of discharging the elderly from hospital into care settings without a Covid-19 test as a “terrible mistake”.

The submission from the British Medical Association (BMA) said the government’s testing and tracing capabilities at the start of the crisis fell “far short” of what was needed and left the infection to “spread unchecked”, while the Unite union doctors group said the government had been slow and had “squandered” weeks of valuable time.

Full story in The Guardian, 24 July 2020