Local lockdowns a failed experiment, says first minister

1. Wales' pandemic health minister Vaughan Gething incorrectly told first Covid cabinet there weren't UK cases when there were, inquiry hears
2. Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford has said local Covid lockdowns was a “failed experiment”
3. Wales' chief medical officer Sir Frank Atherton also tells inquiry of a lack of admin help during the first Covid wave
4. A handwritten note reveals the top doctor's frustrations about differing UK approaches, which he describes as an "omnishambles"
5. The number of people who died with Covid as a contributory factor is 12,551 in Wales, according to latest data

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Frank Atherton used the Malcolm Tucker phrase "omnishambles" to describe the level of differing restrictions around the UK

Our live coverage of Monday's Covid Inquiry has come to an end, we've heard from Wales' chief medical officer, chief scientific adviser and a former top civil servant.

Here are the key things we've learned:

• Omnishambles was the word chief medical officer Frank Atherton wrote in his notebook in 2020 to describe the level of differing restrictions around the UK. The term, coined by character Malcolm Tucker in BBC political satire The Thick of It, means a situation which is shambolic from every possible angle

• Former top civil servant Dame Shan Morgan admits to deleting "some" WhatsApp messages about Covid, which she describes as "housekeeping"
• Local lockdowns were a failed experiment, according to First Minister Mark Drakeford in evidence provided to the inquiry. He will field questions himself next week
• Atherton also says Wales should have copied England's facemask rules as being different became "very problematic"
• He also says that Vaughan Gething, Wales' health minister for the bulk of Covid, incorrectly told the Welsh cabinet that there has been no Covid cases in the UK on 25 Febuary, despite nine cases already having been recorded

Join us tomorrow morning when we'll hear from Wales' top civil servant Dr Andrew Goodall and Public Health Wales boss Dr Tracey Cooper.

Top civil servant admits deleting WhatsApp messages

Morgan admits that she deleted "some" early WhatsApp messages about Covid.

"I didn’t turn on disappearing messages…. To be honest I wouldn’t know how to but I know I deleted a few early message," she says.

"I have no recollection of why beyond I suppose just an attempt at housekeeping."

Senior Drakeford adviser also used disappearing WhatsApps

David Deans

BBC Wales politics reporter

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A senior special adviser switched on disappearing messages in a WhatsApp chat for Welsh government ministers, the inquiry hears.

Counsel to the inquiry Tom Poole tells the hearing that Jane Runeckles, First Minister Mark Drakeford's special adviser, switched on the deletion function in November 2021.

It comes after the inquiry heard last week that then-Health Minister Vaughan Gething used the same setting during the pandemic.

Former permanent secretary Morgan tells the inquest she is “confident” that decisions about Welsh government business were not taken on WhatsApp.

Asked about Runeckles activating disappearing messages, Morgan says she is “surprised”, adding that she had left the government by that point.

Who is Dame Shan Morgan?

Covid Inquiry

The latest witness to give evidence to the inquiry is Dame Shan Morgan, who was permanent secretary to the Welsh government for the bulk of the pandemic - the most senior civil servant in Wales.

You may remember her for getting an £80,519 payout after the first minister asked her to step down from her role early in October 2021.

At the time the auditor general for Wales said some of the money was paid in a way that she was not entitled to her under contract.

Local lockdowns a failed experiment, says Drakeford

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First Minister Mark Drakeford has described local lockdowns as a “failed experiment”, the Covid inquiry hears.

Orford is read the comment from the evidence Drakeford has provided to the inquiry.

"In hindsight perhaps they weren’t the best idea," replies Orford.

He tells the inquiry: “I’m not sure where the origin of the idea around local interventions came from, whether that was UK government or Welsh government.

“I felt it made things more complicated that you had to have more legislation, more policies in place across different local authorities."

Public Health Wales wanted Six Nations game in Cardiff called off

David Deans

BBC Wales politics reporter

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Public Health Wales advised against the Wales v Scotland Six Nations match of March 2020 taking place, despite the Welsh government not forcing its postponement.

By the time organisers called off the match, one day before kick-off, 20,000 Scottish rugby fans had already travelled to Cardiff.

Tom Poole, counsel to the inquiry, says Public Health Wales had advised the match "should be postponed or cancelled".

Orford says he was not aware that advice had been given but agreed that, with “the benefit of hindsight", it would have made sense to call the match off.

More questions for Wales' leaders to answer

Gareth Lewis

Political Editor, BBC Wales

Even before today, the appearance of Wales' pandemic Health Minister Vaughan Gething and First Minister Mark Drakeford next week were going to be must-watches for anyone wanting answers about how Wales dealt with Covid-19.

If anything there are now even more questions for them - like why did Gething tell cabinet on 25 February, 2020 that there had been no Covid cases in the UK when the disease had been in the UK for a least a week?

Why did it take cabinet a month to discuss Covid – even with Brexit and flooding to deal with - despite warnings about how serious it could be?

And what sort of role did the Welsh and UK government relationship play?

We heard last week that Welsh ministers only found out three days before lockdown that they would be in charge of Wales’ covid rules - now today one aspect of that relationship has been summed up as an "omnishambles".

What have we learned so far today?

The inquiry has so far heard from both Wales top doctor and scientific adviser, here's what we learned so far:

• Sir Frank Atherton felt under pressure in the early days of the pandemic and says he had already "kind of" lost control of emails by January 2020.
• Wales' chief medical officer says the Welsh government did not hold a cabinet meeting to discuss Covid until one month after he warned the first minister of the "significant risk" it posed.
• Then-Health Minister Vaughan Gething incorrectly told the Welsh cabinet that there has been no Covid cases in the UK on 25 Febuary, when one week earlier Atherton had been told at a Cobra meeting that nine had already been recorded.
• Atherton conceded that Wales should have followed England on implementing mandatory facemasks in public places, as the differing rules became "very problematic".
• "Omnishambles" was the word Atherton used to describe the level of differing restrictions around the UK in a 2020 notebook entry. The term coined by BBC political satire The Thick of It means a situation which is shambolic from every possible angle.

Wales' top health scientist was worried the NHS would be overwhelmed

BBC

The Welsh government's chief scientific adviser for health, Rob Orford, was concerned early in the pandemic that the disease would overwhelm the NHS.

The inquiry hears that Orford wrote an email on 25 February that, based on current models, "demand will significantly outstrip NHS bed capacity for about eight weeks during epidemic peak”.

Another email on 27 February warned of NHS capacity being potentially outstripped.

The inquiry has now adjourned for lunch and we'll bring you the latest evidence this afternoon.

What did we learn from Atherton?

Owain Clarke

BBC Wales health correspondent

Welsh government

As the Welsh government's top doctor throughout the pandemic, Atherton bore a lot of responsibility in advising minister's on the best course of action.

What's clear from his initial evidence is that he felt under a huge amount of pressure early on and felt like he was being swamped by the information and emails coming in - more admin support didn't come until months later.

On specific calls, one of the biggest decisions that made Wales an “outlier” compared to other UK countries was the delay in insisting people wear facemasks in public places.

It is clear Atherton had big questions about the policy - including that it might deplete a limited supply of PPE (better used for healthcare workers) but might also encourage risky behaviours.

Despite him conceding that, if he were to do it again, he would recommend earlier use of facemasks, the impression I get is, from a scientific point of view, that he's still not convinced about how effective the mandatory use of face coverings were.

Not testing patients entering care homes was best option - Atherton

David Deans

BBC Wales politics reporter

There was “no safer alternative” to discharging hospital patients with symptoms of Covid into care homes without a test being required, Atherton tells the inquiry.

“The common view was that care homes ought to be able to manage cases of infectious disease by isolating people within there," he says.

“That was not an easy decision for ministers or for anybody to make, but it was in the context of hospitals absolutely risking being overloaded.”

He says elderly patients could have been asymptomatic in hospital but potentially “staying in hospital and becoming infected".

That ends the chief medical officer's evidence.

Atherton's frustrations revealed with 'omnishambles' note

Frank Atherton sums up his frustration at a lack of information about different restrictions around the UK with one word: Omnishambles.

The inquiry is shown a spider diagram he scrawled in his notebook, which appears to be from the summer of 2020, with the word written at the centre of the page.

Covid Inquiry

The word, voted 2012's word of the year by the Oxford English Dictionary, was first coined in BBC political satire show The Thick of It and means a situation which is shambolic from every possible angle.

“This represents a degree of frustration I think I had which is that information came from UK level into Wales very late and left us on the back foot on some issues,” says Atherton.

He says it “seemed odd” that some restrictions were being lifted when the virus was low, but other restrictions – including rules on wearing masks – were being introduced.

"Why were we doing that? Why were Scotland moving more on face coverings at a time when we were relaxing other things?"

We should have copied England’s facemask policy - Atherton

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The chief medical officer says Wales should have copied England when it made face coverings mandatory in public places.

Wales made masks compulsory on public transport in July 2020 but not in shops until September, whereas England made them mandatory in shops in July.

Atherton originally advised against it amid concerns over PPE, face coverings encouraging risky behaviour and coverings not being up to World Health Organization standards.

However, he acknowledges that implementing different rules compared to other parts of the UK “became very problematic".

“I think from all the time and energy spent on face coverings it would have been better to align,” he adds.

Nothing could have stopped nationwide lockdowns, says top doc

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Wales' Six Nations clash with Scotland was cancelled with just one day's notice on 13 March 2020

Atherton tells the inquiry that no matter what the Welsh or UK governments had done, he believes a nationwide lockdown was unavoidable.

However, he says that "in hindsight” there should have been earlier advice to stop mass gatherings, such as Wales' Six Nations clash with Scotland, which was called off just one day before kick-off, with many Scotland fans having already travelled to the Welsh capital.

"With the benefit of hindsight I think [cancelling these events] would have been a useful thing to do," says Atherton

"That’s a lesson we should learn into future pandemics."

Health minister was wrong on UK Covid cases, says Atherton

David Deans

BBC Wales politics reporter

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The chief medical officer says Vaughan Gething, Wales' health minister during the pandemic, was wrong when he told Wales' first Covid cabinet meeting that there weren't any recorded cases in the UK.

The inquiry presented Atherton with minutes from the meeting, held on 25 February, which show Gething told colleagues that there had been no imported cases in the UK.

However, Atherton had been at a Cobra meeting on 18 February when it was confirmed there were nine positive cases in the UK.

Asked if Gething’s assessment was correct, he replied: “From what you say, it can’t be."

One-month delay in discussing Covid response

Dan Davies

BBC Wales Politics

Atherton says the Welsh government did not formally discuss Covid until one month after he warned First Minister Mark Drakeford that it was likely to arrive in Wales.

He says he told the first minister there was a “significant risk” of Covid coming to Wales on 24 January 2020, but the cabinet discussion did not happened until 25 February.

By the end of January, Atherton says it was “increasingly apparent that optimistic scenario of it fizzling out in China was not going to happen”.

He adds that the delay did not particularly surprise him, because of “everything that was happening in Wales, including the management of the flooding”.

I lost control of emails early on, says Wales' top doc

The chief medical officer says he "kind of" lost control of his emails towards the end of January of 2020, months before any lockdown measures were imposed.

Atherton says he felt like an "outlier" compared to other chief medical officers in the UK as he believes they were provided with more support.

He says he raised the issue in February with then-chief executive of the NHS, Andrew Goodall, but did not get any extra support until May.

Who is Frank Atherton?

BBC

Dr Frank Atherton, chief medical officer for Wales, is the first witness being quizzed by the inquiry this week.

One of the most prominent figures during the pandemic, his advice to government ministers helped guide Wales' response to Covid and he was regularly seen fronting press conferences.

Last week, Dr Robert Hoyle, the Welsh government's head of science, criticised Atherton's decision to delay implementing mandatory facemasks in Wales, something he will likely be asked to explain later today.

Atherton tells the inquiry that, in the early months of Covid, he felt there was a lack of support around him to manage the amount of information he was receiving.

What is the Covid inquiry and how does it work?

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Boris Johnson, who was prime minister for much of the pandemic, launched a public inquiry to look into the UK government's handling and decision-making during Covid.

Inquiries respond to "public concern" about events and are established and funded by government but led by an independent chair.

They can demand evidence and compel witnesses to attend. No-one is found guilty or innocent, but conclusions are published. The government is not obliged to accept any recommendations.

The Covid inquiry began on 28 June 2022, earlier this month it was in Scotland, its now Wales' turn before it heads to Northern Ireland in April.

What happened last week?

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The UK Covid inquiry began its run in Cardiff last week, scrutinising the Welsh government’s handling of the pandemic.

Here are some of the key developments:

• A witness appearing on behalf of bereaved families said the Welsh government was “caught with its trousers down” around the pandemic
• Senior government officials – including then-health minister Vaughan Gething – used the disappearing messages
• Dr Roland Salmon, ex-Public Health Wales communicable diseases director, criticised parts of the Welsh government’s lockdown policy, including the decision to stop pubs from selling alcohol