The discussion turns to how Covid spread through care homes, and Greg Clark is asked whether one of the biggest mistakes was not testing people who were discharged from hospital to care homes.

He replies: "Yes it was," adding that if there had been enough testing capacity to test everyone leaving hospitals for care homes, "undoubtedly we could have stopped this seeding of infections into care homes".

Clark adds that even with the limited testing capacity we had at the time, the government should have been "more rigorous" in the regime for discharging people from hospital into care homes, saying the rules should have been tougher on putting those people into isolation.

Overall, more than 39,000 care home residents died with the virus between 10 April 2020 and 31 March 2021.

However, Clark disagreed that the public inquiry into the government's handling of the pandemic - scheduled for next spring - should be brought forward, adding that reconstructing what happened would take "some time" but that the MPs' inquiry hoped to put lessons learnt into practice now.

Greg Clark, chairman of the Science and Technology Committee that co-authored the report, says it is doing the "painful" work in trying to "squeeze out the lessons" from the government's handling of the pandemic.

Asked what the report found on why the government delayed locking the country down, Clark says one "mistake" was the "assumption" that people wouldn't obey lockdown rules for a long period of time and that the harshest restrictions could only be brought in at the last minute to ensure maximum compliance and effect.

"What we actually discovered in practice was that people were actually perfectly prepared to follow instructions, to stay at home, because they realised the importance of it," he tells BBC Breakfast.

Clark says there also wasn't enough testing capacity at the outset - which left the country "in the dark" on the Covid picture in the community - and the UK should have been quicker to mobilise it.

"The operational response of NHS test and trace was very poor and very slow and that really hampered our initial response," he adds.

Image source, PA Media

The report also discusses whether the UK was quick enough to close its borders.

"The UK did not impose blanket or rigorous border controls at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic as compared to other countries, particularly in East and South East Asia," the report says.

"Instead, the UK implemented light-touch border controls only on countries and regions where there was a recorded high incidence rate. While the UK initially focused on China, Iran, South Korea and Italy, a significant number of cases came from elsewhere.

"A study found that 33% of cases during the first wave were introduced from Spain and 29% were introduced from France.

"The number of seeding events that occurred early in the pandemic, coupled with the lack of data, made the lockdown almost inevitable.

"By contrast, other countries implemented more rigorous border controls which were more effective at suppressing the virus and preventing the need for long and repeated lockdowns.

"However, even though it is not straightforward to make direct comparisons between countries, and it is yet to be seen how countries like New Zealand will fare when their borders are opened, it is reasonable to say that a more precautionary approach would have been beneficial at the start of the pandemic."

The report is also specifically critical of the care home strategy in the early weeks of the pandemic.

"The lack of priority attached to social care during the initial phase of the pandemic was illustrative of a longstanding failure to afford social care the same attention as the NHS," it says.

"The rapid discharge of people from hospitals into care homes without adequate testing or rigorous isolation was indicative of the disparity.

"It is understandable that the government should move quickly to avoid hospitals being overwhelmed but it was a mistake to allow patients to be transferred to care homes without the rigour shown in places like Germany and Hong Kong.

"This, combined with untested staff bringing infection into homes from the community, led to many thousands of deaths which could have been avoided."

While the report criticises the early response, it is full of praise for the UK's vaccine rollout.

"The success of the vaccine programme — one of the most effective in Europe and, for a country of our size one of the most effective in the world — shows that positive as well as negative lessons should be taken from our handling of the pandemic," says the exeuctive summary.

The report adds: "The distribution of vaccines was the mirror image of the test and trace operation.

"It sprang into large scale operation explosively and impressively, rather than slowly and inadequately; it made extensive use of existing NHS resources — hospitals, GPs and pharmacists — it welcomed third party assistance — such as the countless volunteer groups across the country — rather than having the approach of repelling local assistance that test and trace initially favoured."

The report offers some mitigation for the UK's early response - saying decisions in the initial weeks of the pandemic in 2020 were taken "in a fog of uncertainty".

"The UK did not know to what extent Covid-19 had entered the country, how many people it was affecting, how quickly it would spread, and what would be the consequences in terms of illness and death," it says.

"What the UK did know was bleak: from the experience of China and Italy, it was clear that Covid-19 was a highly infectious virus, with profound consequences for health, and for which there was no cure nor effective treatments.

"This meant that the only tools available to affect the spread of the pandemic were isolating people who had contracted the virus and their contacts, and, more generally restricting contacts between people."

The report comes from MPs on the Health and Social Care, and Science and Technology Committees.

It is called "Coronavirus: Lessons learned to date" and stretches over 147 pages.

One of the key sections comes on page 32, while discussing the UK's early response.

"A comprehensive lockdown was not ordered until 23 March 2020...this slow and gradualist approach was not inadvertent...it is now clear that this was the wrong policy," the report says.

It adds: "Decisions on lockdowns and social distancing during the early weeks of the pandemic — and the advice that led to them — rank as one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced.

"This happened despite the UK counting on some of the best expertise available anywhere in the world, and despite having an open, democratic system that allowed plentiful challenge. Painful though it is, the UK must learn what lessons it can of why this happened if we are to ensure it is not repeated."

Image source, Getty Images

Good morning and welcome to our rolling coverage of the Covid pandemic. This morning's headlines:

• A major report by MPs in the UK has criticised the early response to the Covid pandemic
• Delays on lockdown and social distancing "rank as one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced"
• Discharging people from hospitals to care homes, and letting untested staff work in homes, "led to many thousands of deaths which could have been avoided"
• But the report praised the UK's vaccine rollout

• Read our story here, or the full report here, external

In other coronavirus news:

• With growing spending on the NHS and a smaller economy than projected pre-pandemic, there is no room for big spending announcements in this month's Budget, the Institute for Fiscal Studies says
• Thailand plans to end quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated travellers from at least 10 low-risk nations - including the UK - from 1 November
• The governor of Texas has issued an executive order banning all entities, including private companies, from enforcing vaccinations in the state