Whitty: UK faced ‘absolutely catastrophic situation’ before first Covid lockdown
The IndependentGet the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The UK faced an “absolutely catastrophic situation” as it headed towards the first Covid lockdown, England’s chief medical officer has said, as he defended the fact not all patients with other illnesses could get NHS care. Professor Sir Chris Whitty told the Covid inquiry in central London there were concerns things could get “substantially worse”, even at the point when the NHS was not functioning as well as it should. I don't mean just trivial worse, but really quite substantially worse Prof Sir Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer She said: “Can I ask you this, was overwhelmed ever defined by those that were making that decision?” Sir Chris replied: “Not really, and I think that it’s become, unfortunately, quite a loaded term where people, depending on what point they’re trying to make, either say things were or were not overwhelmed. “I think the aim of it, though, was to minimise the number of people who died, both directly and indirectly from Covid.” Describing the health harms from the pandemic, Sir Chris said there were direct harms from Covid – the number of people who died from the virus – and the indirect harms “that come from the system being overwhelmed or at least unable to cope … all diseases, not just Covid, having higher mortality rates than they would have had.” He said people often forget that, at the time, Covid cases were exponentially rising, with a doubling rate of three to four days.
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