Sunday Times Covid article summary
- Boris Johnson did not attend the first five emergency government meetings
- In the early stages Johnson was more focused on the EU withdrawal & his cabinet reshuffle
- Johnson spent 12 days on a country retreat holiday in February – while his ministers, medical and science experts were discussing plans for dealing with the virus. They were told to cut contact down with him
- Johnson did return to London for a night though – to attend a Conservatives fundraising ball S. Johnson attended his first emergency meeting on 2 March
- Emergency stockpiles of PPE had dwindled and gone out of date after becoming low priority due to austerity cuts
- Training to prepare key workers for a pandemic was on hold for 2 years while contingency planning was diverted to deal with a possible no-deal Brexit
- The Conservatives were first warned about mass deaths and lack of PPE in January
- Despite the above, 279,000 items of PPE were Sent to China in February
- The Conservatives were first advised that a lockdown would be necessary on 22 January
- 190,000 people flew into the LJK from Wuhan & other high-risk Chinese cities between January & March
