Earlier lockdown would have reduced deaths

A Llanidloes man who advised the government on COVID-19 has said the number of deaths in the UK could have been halved had lockdown action happened earlier.

Professor Neil Ferguson, who was raised in Llanidloes and attended the high school, is now at Imperial College London and resigned from the government's scientific committee (SAGE) on COVID-19 last month when it was alleged he broke lockdown regulations.

Today, he told MPs the virus had doubled in numbers every three or four days before lockdown.

"So whilst I think the measures, given what we knew about this virus then, in terms of its transmission, were warranted, certainly had we introduced them earlier, we would have seen many fewer deaths," he said.

He added that the number of deaths in care homes could have been less.

"We made the rather optimistic assumption that somehow the elderly would be shielded," be said.

 

Photo: Professor Neil Ferguson, originally from Llanidloes (Imperial College London)