Coronavirus: UK 'probably' has 'Europe's highest death rate' because government was 'too slow' to act, expert warns

Professor Anthony Costello, of UCL Institute for Global Health, gives evidence to the Commons Health Committee via video link Credit: House of Commons/PA

Britain will face “further waves” of coronavirus and has "probably the highest death rates in Europe" because the Government was “too slow” to act, a leading physician has warned.

Professor Anthony Costello, of University College London’s Institute for Global Health, told a committee of MPs that the “harsh reality” is that “we were too slow with a number of things”.

“What were the system errors that led us to have probably the highest death rates in Europe?” he asked.

“If we’re going to suppress the chain of transmission of this virus in the next stage we all hope that the national lockdown and social distancing will bring about a large suppression of the epidemic so far – but we’re going to face further waves,” he added.

Credit: PA Graphics

Prof Costello, giving evidence to the Commons Health and Social Care Committee, said we “should not have any blame at this stage” but that “we can make sure in the second wave we’re not too slow”.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that testing will be expanded to those in the police, fire service and prisons, as well as critical local authority workers, the judiciary and Department for Work and Pensions staff - where required.

It follows criticism of a gulf between those being tested and the testing capacity, with just 16,000 tests being conducted in the 24 hours up to 9am on Wednesday, despite 35,000 tests being available.

Mr Hancock confirmed to the committee that more than 50,000 NHS workers have now been tested for coronavirus.

MPs were also told that healthcare staff are “genuinely concerned” about the safety of patients being compromised if workers are spread too thinly.

Dr Alison Pittard, Dean at the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, said: “We’ve had to spread ourselves more thinly and we have developed guidance to try and make sure that continues to be safe, but if we have to expand even more and spread ourselves even more thinly, there would be concern that safety could be compromised.

“So everyone is working really well, we’re doing everything that we can but staff are genuinely concerned.”

And Dame Donna Kinnair, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, told the committee sick NHS workers are being forced to drive two hours away to be tested.

She urged: “We need some really clear direction on how we can access testing both in the NHS but more so for social care, because they don’t have the same infrastructure as the NHS."

Prof Costello, a former British director at the World Health Organization, said he was “not sure we need 100,000 tests per day in reality if we can get this epidemic damped down” and that it was “more important to have the systems in place”.

“How are they restructuring the public health teams? Have they got plans in place? Will they need extra volunteers, for example?”

He also suggested offering incentives to 10% of the population to stay socially isolated in order to get the economy going again.

“We have to get the economy going and if it means locking down 10% of our population, even giving them incentives to stay in quarantine and with digital apps to help monitor their symptoms and give them support, that’s the way to really keep this going until we get a vaccine and safe herd immunity.”