We are now ending our live coverage of the first day of the UK's Covid inquiry. Thanks for joining us.
Our writers today were Imogen James, Jennifer McKiernan and André Rhoden-Paul.
The page was edited by Owen Amos, Alex Therrien, Sarah Fowler and Alexandra Fouché.
What happened today?
The first day of the UK's Covid inquiry has drawn to a close following a number of opening statements from lawyers and representatives from different organisations.
Here's a summary of what was said during the day:
Opening the hearing, chair Lady Hallett said those who had suffered in the pandemic would "always be at the heart of the inquiry"
The lead lawyer in the inquiry, Hugo Keith KC, said there seemed to be "very little thought" in advance about a national lockdown and the consequences for education and the economy and how to mitigate them
Pete Weatherby KC, counsel for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group, accused UK authorities of "complacent" pandemic planning that was geared towards a flu outbreak
The lawyer for Northern Ireland's bereaved families, Ronan Lavery KC, said the country was 18 months behind the UK in pandemic preparedness
Kirsten Heaven, on behalf of Welsh bereaved families, said the Welsh government had ultimate responsibility over pandemic handling and needed to be held accountable
And for Scotland, Dr Claire Mitchell said there were questions over whether the Scottish and UK governments were able to put aside their political differences to act in the public interest
Representing local government in Wales, Robin Allen KC added central government had a "lack of trust" in local authorities
For more on today's hearing, you can read our news story here.
We will continue to bring you coverage of Module 1 of the inquiry as it unfolds over the next six weeks.
Inquiry ends for the day
Today's inquiry hearing has now ended.
It will begin again at 10:00 tomorrow morning.
Central government 'did not understand how councils could contribute' - Allen KC
Allen goes on to say "local government was not in charge" and it's clear in hindsight there were significant gaps in the planning process by central government.
He sets out how local government should be "better appreciated" by central government, among others.
"Too often during the pandemic, central government did not fully understand the way local government worked and what it could contribute," he said, suggesting a "lack of trust... misplaced confidence" could be a factor.
There was a failure to learn from the way Asian countries were dealing with outbreaks and no planning around non-pharmaceutical interventions, including lockdowns.
Welsh local government stepped up during pandemic - lawyer
Robin Allen KC is now speaking on behalf of the Local Government Association (in England) and the Welsh Local Government Association. He says they were key workers too, as they continued to work throughout the pandemic.
He says they kept essential local services going as well as stepping up "to deliver a whole suite of new functions crucial to the response".
Examples he gives include registering births and deaths, protecting consumers, safeguarding children, working on waste collection and ensuring open spaces were available.
"At the same time, they administered multi-million-pound national financial assistance schemes for business.
"And yet... one concern is that too often during the pandemic, central government did not fully understand the way local government in England worked and what it could contribute. On occasions, it has seemed as though there was a lack of trust in local authorities."
Local health directors 'excluded from key communications'
Ford continues, highlighting problems in communication, saying that local health directors were "repeatedly excluded from key communications and guidance".
He says local health directors found out changes in Covid guidelines alongside members of the public.
This made his members feel their voices were "neither wanted nor heard", he says.
He adds the UK was inadequately prepared for a pandemic of this nature - including failing to have an up-to-date contact list for local health directors - and that more involvement was needed from local health authorities in future pandemics.
Moral obligation to be prepared for next time - public health chiefs' representative
Steve Ford is appearing now on behalf of the Association of Directors of Public Health.
He starts by reading words from their president, Prof Jim McManus: "Over 225,000 people in the UK alone lost their lives to this virus.
"The scale of this loss heightens considerably the fundamental moral obligation on all of us to ensure that when the next pandemic comes, as it will, we are absolutely prepared to respond in a way which delivers the minimum possible loss of life and harms to people."
Hopes inquiry will shape response to future pandemics - Murnaghan
Concluding her remarks, Murnaghan says there was "continuous learning" throughout the pandemic.
She says there were far-reaching impacts of the pandemic on society and she's acutely conscious of enduring consequences on our health services.
She hopes this inquiry will help shape the future response to pandemics and says her department will stand ready to assist whenever it can.
Brexit diverted attention from pandemic planning - lawyer
Neasa Murnaghan KC - representing the Department of Heath, Northern Ireland - says preparations for a no-deal EU exit did divert attentions away from pandemic preparedness.
But she says that on the "positive side", there was additional training and increased stockpiles for medicines and medical devices.
Northern Ireland showed improvements in early stages of pandemic - Murnaghan
Murnaghan says her department has submitted evidence which shows continuous learning throughout the pandemic.
This is due to in part, she says, to increased and evolving scientific knowledge regarding Covid-19.
"Throughout these first stages, there were improvements in Northern Ireland's reaction to the pandemic as a result of increased availability to testing, improvements in pandemic modelling, improved understanding of individual and population behaviours and how they were influenced by modelling, and by the development of vaccines and how their rapid deployment was effected as well as the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions."
Northern Ireland response 'effective and coherent'
Murnaghan continues, stating the response in Northern Ireland was "effective and coherent".
There was a clear structure within the department, she says, and their "main priority from day one was the protection of Northern Irish citizens from the virus".
When the public emergency was declared, emergency response plans were activated alongside other devolved administrations.
That UK-wide co-operation was a "crucial element for an effective and coherent response".
She acknowledges there are lessons to be learned to better prepare for the future, she adds.
Crisis was unprecedented - NI Department of Health lawyer
Neasa Murnaghan - KC for the Department of Health, Northern Ireland - is speaking now after the break.
"I wish to begin by conveying the department's sincere condolences to those who have suffered bereavement as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic."
She says they also express sympathy to anyone living with or who has suffered from the disease.
"In our lifetime, this crisis was unprecedented," she adds, as well as thanking healthcare workers for whom she says they have an "extraordinary appreciation".
I'm suffering from PTSD, says intensive care nurse
Joan Pons Laplana says he was left with post-traumatic stress disorder after treating patients in an intensive care unit in a hospital in Sheffield during the pandemic.
He says the inquiry must not be another Grenfell where "in the end nobody is accountable", referring to the ongoing inquiry into the tower block disaster where 72 people died.
"Really they mismanaged and they broke the law," he told BBC Radio 5 Live, referring to senior ministers.
"I want not just fines but, if there are serious breaches of the law, I want them to be accountable and have jail time if that is what needs to happen."
BBCCopyright: BBC
Nurse Joan Pons Laplana working in his ICU protective kitImage caption: Nurse Joan Pons Laplana working in his ICU protective kit
How many times can you get Covid?
Jim Reed
Health reporter, BBC News
BBCCopyright: BBC
Jim's positive Covid-19 testImage caption: Jim's positive Covid-19 test
Instead
of reporting from the inquiry HQ in Paddington, west London, today as I planned,
I’m stuck trying to work from home after testing positive for Covid again over
the weekend.
Like
many people, it’s the third time I’ve contracted the disease in a little over
18 months.
The
first dose certainly felt the worst with a fever and a hacking cough. The
second was more like a heavy cold, and I bounced back quickly.
I
have to say though that this third infection is more like the first one with a
complete loss of taste and smell and a couple of very uncomfortable sleepless
nights.
Looking
back at news reports, there was a debate at the start of the pandemic about
whether it was even possible to catch Covid more than once.
It
may have now become part of our everyday lives in the same way as other
respiratory diseases.
Like flu though, it can
still be a dangerous illness, especially for someone with a weakened immune
system.
And we've still got more than 2,700 hospitals beds in England currently occupied by someone who's tested positive as of the end of last month.
Government response on sick pay was 'half-hearted'
Sam Jacobs next highlights the issue of self-isolation, one of the non-pharmaceutical measures taken during the pandemic, and how it affected low-paid workers.
"Many front-line workers who faced the highest death rates were in low-paid jobs with poor employment rights."
But, he says, those in these types of jobs would face the difficulties of in-work poverty.
"For many, self-isolation would be a choice between not self-isolating, or self-isolating, but not having the money to live and eat."
Issues were raised with the government over statutory sick pay, but "the government response of sick pay was unplanned for and late. It was also half-hearted".
He also highlights the importance of pandemic preparedness across other industries like parcel delivering and food production, and not just healthcare.
"Preparedness for these sorts of sectors is crucial," he says.
He adds the government must identify where they may need to step in to support industries during a pandemic, including procurement of PPE.
Jacobs ends his statement, and the hearing now pauses for a short break.
Social care sector has been neglected - Jacobs
Turning to social care now, Jacobs says the sector is fragmented.
He says the problem is one of neglect, and that "there has been no attempt to restructure at all".
The overall workforce is more than in the NHS, with 1.5 million people in adult social care, but Jacobs highlights there is no equivalent to NHS England that seeks to provide strategy and direction to the sector.
Political infighting damaging to inquiry - Jacobs
Jacobs continues and says another point "concerns the openness and candour, or lack of it, of the current Westminster government".
The public deserves openness from those who govern both during the pandemic and now, he adds.
Jacobs says the cabinet have made it difficult to get hold of documents the inquiry wishes to see.
The cabinet refuses to give Boris Johnson his diaries back as they are aware he will give them over to the inquiry, he says. Johnson is currently being investigated by the House of Commons over whether he deliberately misled parliament over lockdown parties.
"The infighting jars with the terrible losses described in the impact film that we watched this morning. The position taken by the Cabinet Office is corrosive, because it damaged confidence in this inquiry. It smacks of having something to hide."
'Far too many died' - TUC representative
Sam Jacobs, for the Trades Union Congress (TUC) which represents more than five million people across multiple unions, now addresses the hearing.
He says those in health and social care roles were on the front line, along with shelf stackers in supermarkets, bus and train divers, delivery drivers, and cleaners.
"Far too many died," he states.
He says the occupations with the highest death rate were in the caring, leisure and process and manufacturing industries.
"Significantly, it was not just loss, it was avoidable loss," he says.
'Health systems lacked resources to respond to pandemic'
Brian Stanton for the BMA highlights another failure in not implementing surge capacity, which was identified in previous pandemic exercises.
"The public health system was not in a position to scale up its activity to respond to the pandemic due to a decade or more of reduced funding, resource cuts and reorganisation," he says.
He adds public health systems in the UK entered the pandemic without the necessary resources, workforce capacity or structures to respond at the speed and scale required.
Mistakes need to be addressed - British Medical Association
Stanton says the final key area to highlight is that "the UK entered the pandemic with poor population health, widening health inequalities and health services that had been consistently underfunded and understaffed".
He adds that before Covid-19 appeared, gains in life expectancy had already started to stall and health inequalities were widening.
Severe cuts to public health service and social security funding have negatively affected the provisions needed for good public health, he says.
"The UK went into the pandemic with a very low total number of hospital beds... which significantly hampered" their ability to cope with the number of patients.
"This - combined with workforce shortages and already high waiting lists - meant that the health service had no ability to step up capacity," Stanton says.
There were unsafe bed occupancy levels, deteriorating equipment and acute short staffing levels. This, Stanton says, is the "elephant in the room" and needs to be addressed, otherwise the same mistakes will be repeated.
Live Reporting
Edited by Alexandra Fouché and Sarah Fowler
All times stated are UK
Get involved
-
Opening the hearing, chair Lady Hallett said those who had suffered in the pandemic would "always be at the heart of the inquiry"
-
The lead lawyer in the inquiry, Hugo Keith KC, said there seemed to be "very little thought" in advance about a national lockdown and the consequences for education and the economy and how to mitigate them
-
Pete Weatherby KC, counsel for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group, accused UK authorities of "complacent" pandemic planning that was geared towards a flu outbreak
-
The lawyer for Northern Ireland's bereaved families, Ronan Lavery KC, said the country was 18 months behind the UK in pandemic preparedness
-
Kirsten Heaven, on behalf of Welsh bereaved families, said the Welsh government had ultimate responsibility over pandemic handling and needed to be held accountable
-
And for Scotland, Dr Claire Mitchell said there were questions over whether the Scottish and UK governments were able to put aside their political differences to act in the public interest
-
Representing local government in Wales, Robin Allen KC added central government had a "lack of trust" in local authorities
BBCCopyright: BBC Nurse Joan Pons Laplana working in his ICU protective kitImage caption: Nurse Joan Pons Laplana working in his ICU protective kit 
BBCCopyright: BBC Jim's positive Covid-19 testImage caption: Jim's positive Covid-19 test
Latest PostGoodbye for now
We are now ending our live coverage of the first day of the UK's Covid inquiry. Thanks for joining us.
Our writers today were Imogen James, Jennifer McKiernan and André Rhoden-Paul.
The page was edited by Owen Amos, Alex Therrien, Sarah Fowler and Alexandra Fouché.
What happened today?
The first day of the UK's Covid inquiry has drawn to a close following a number of opening statements from lawyers and representatives from different organisations.
Here's a summary of what was said during the day:
For more on today's hearing, you can read our news story here.
We will continue to bring you coverage of Module 1 of the inquiry as it unfolds over the next six weeks.
Inquiry ends for the day
Today's inquiry hearing has now ended.
It will begin again at 10:00 tomorrow morning.
Central government 'did not understand how councils could contribute' - Allen KC
Allen goes on to say "local government was not in charge" and it's clear in hindsight there were significant gaps in the planning process by central government.
He sets out how local government should be "better appreciated" by central government, among others.
"Too often during the pandemic, central government did not fully understand the way local government worked and what it could contribute," he said, suggesting a "lack of trust... misplaced confidence" could be a factor.
There was a failure to learn from the way Asian countries were dealing with outbreaks and no planning around non-pharmaceutical interventions, including lockdowns.
Welsh local government stepped up during pandemic - lawyer
Robin Allen KC is now speaking on behalf of the Local Government Association (in England) and the Welsh Local Government Association. He says they were key workers too, as they continued to work throughout the pandemic.
He says they kept essential local services going as well as stepping up "to deliver a whole suite of new functions crucial to the response".
Examples he gives include registering births and deaths, protecting consumers, safeguarding children, working on waste collection and ensuring open spaces were available.
"At the same time, they administered multi-million-pound national financial assistance schemes for business.
"And yet... one concern is that too often during the pandemic, central government did not fully understand the way local government in England worked and what it could contribute. On occasions, it has seemed as though there was a lack of trust in local authorities."
Local health directors 'excluded from key communications'
Ford continues, highlighting problems in communication, saying that local health directors were "repeatedly excluded from key communications and guidance".
He says local health directors found out changes in Covid guidelines alongside members of the public.
This made his members feel their voices were "neither wanted nor heard", he says.
He adds the UK was inadequately prepared for a pandemic of this nature - including failing to have an up-to-date contact list for local health directors - and that more involvement was needed from local health authorities in future pandemics.
Moral obligation to be prepared for next time - public health chiefs' representative
Steve Ford is appearing now on behalf of the Association of Directors of Public Health.
He starts by reading words from their president, Prof Jim McManus: "Over 225,000 people in the UK alone lost their lives to this virus.
"The scale of this loss heightens considerably the fundamental moral obligation on all of us to ensure that when the next pandemic comes, as it will, we are absolutely prepared to respond in a way which delivers the minimum possible loss of life and harms to people."
Hopes inquiry will shape response to future pandemics - Murnaghan
Concluding her remarks, Murnaghan says there was "continuous learning" throughout the pandemic.
She says there were far-reaching impacts of the pandemic on society and she's acutely conscious of enduring consequences on our health services.
She hopes this inquiry will help shape the future response to pandemics and says her department will stand ready to assist whenever it can.
Brexit diverted attention from pandemic planning - lawyer
Neasa Murnaghan KC - representing the Department of Heath, Northern Ireland - says preparations for a no-deal EU exit did divert attentions away from pandemic preparedness.
But she says that on the "positive side", there was additional training and increased stockpiles for medicines and medical devices.
Northern Ireland showed improvements in early stages of pandemic - Murnaghan
Murnaghan says her department has submitted evidence which shows continuous learning throughout the pandemic.
This is due to in part, she says, to increased and evolving scientific knowledge regarding Covid-19.
"Throughout these first stages, there were improvements in Northern Ireland's reaction to the pandemic as a result of increased availability to testing, improvements in pandemic modelling, improved understanding of individual and population behaviours and how they were influenced by modelling, and by the development of vaccines and how their rapid deployment was effected as well as the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions."
Northern Ireland response 'effective and coherent'
Murnaghan continues, stating the response in Northern Ireland was "effective and coherent".
There was a clear structure within the department, she says, and their "main priority from day one was the protection of Northern Irish citizens from the virus".
When the public emergency was declared, emergency response plans were activated alongside other devolved administrations.
That UK-wide co-operation was a "crucial element for an effective and coherent response".
She acknowledges there are lessons to be learned to better prepare for the future, she adds.
Crisis was unprecedented - NI Department of Health lawyer
Neasa Murnaghan - KC for the Department of Health, Northern Ireland - is speaking now after the break.
"I wish to begin by conveying the department's sincere condolences to those who have suffered bereavement as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic."
She says they also express sympathy to anyone living with or who has suffered from the disease.
"In our lifetime, this crisis was unprecedented," she adds, as well as thanking healthcare workers for whom she says they have an "extraordinary appreciation".
I'm suffering from PTSD, says intensive care nurse
Joan Pons Laplana says he was left with post-traumatic stress disorder after treating patients in an intensive care unit in a hospital in Sheffield during the pandemic.
He says the inquiry must not be another Grenfell where "in the end nobody is accountable", referring to the ongoing inquiry into the tower block disaster where 72 people died.
"Really they mismanaged and they broke the law," he told BBC Radio 5 Live, referring to senior ministers.
"I want not just fines but, if there are serious breaches of the law, I want them to be accountable and have jail time if that is what needs to happen."
How many times can you get Covid?
Jim Reed
Health reporter, BBC News
Instead of reporting from the inquiry HQ in Paddington, west London, today as I planned, I’m stuck trying to work from home after testing positive for Covid again over the weekend.
Like many people, it’s the third time I’ve contracted the disease in a little over 18 months.
The first dose certainly felt the worst with a fever and a hacking cough. The second was more like a heavy cold, and I bounced back quickly.
I have to say though that this third infection is more like the first one with a complete loss of taste and smell and a couple of very uncomfortable sleepless nights.
Looking back at news reports, there was a debate at the start of the pandemic about whether it was even possible to catch Covid more than once.
It may have now become part of our everyday lives in the same way as other respiratory diseases.
Like flu though, it can still be a dangerous illness, especially for someone with a weakened immune system.
And we've still got more than 2,700 hospitals beds in England currently occupied by someone who's tested positive as of the end of last month.
Government response on sick pay was 'half-hearted'
Sam Jacobs next highlights the issue of self-isolation, one of the non-pharmaceutical measures taken during the pandemic, and how it affected low-paid workers.
"Many front-line workers who faced the highest death rates were in low-paid jobs with poor employment rights."
But, he says, those in these types of jobs would face the difficulties of in-work poverty.
"For many, self-isolation would be a choice between not self-isolating, or self-isolating, but not having the money to live and eat."
Issues were raised with the government over statutory sick pay, but "the government response of sick pay was unplanned for and late. It was also half-hearted".
He also highlights the importance of pandemic preparedness across other industries like parcel delivering and food production, and not just healthcare.
"Preparedness for these sorts of sectors is crucial," he says.
He adds the government must identify where they may need to step in to support industries during a pandemic, including procurement of PPE.
Jacobs ends his statement, and the hearing now pauses for a short break.
Social care sector has been neglected - Jacobs
Turning to social care now, Jacobs says the sector is fragmented.
He says the problem is one of neglect, and that "there has been no attempt to restructure at all".
The overall workforce is more than in the NHS, with 1.5 million people in adult social care, but Jacobs highlights there is no equivalent to NHS England that seeks to provide strategy and direction to the sector.
Political infighting damaging to inquiry - Jacobs
Jacobs continues and says another point "concerns the openness and candour, or lack of it, of the current Westminster government".
The public deserves openness from those who govern both during the pandemic and now, he adds.
Jacobs says the cabinet have made it difficult to get hold of documents the inquiry wishes to see.
The cabinet refuses to give Boris Johnson his diaries back as they are aware he will give them over to the inquiry, he says. Johnson is currently being investigated by the House of Commons over whether he deliberately misled parliament over lockdown parties.
"The infighting jars with the terrible losses described in the impact film that we watched this morning. The position taken by the Cabinet Office is corrosive, because it damaged confidence in this inquiry. It smacks of having something to hide."
'Far too many died' - TUC representative
Sam Jacobs, for the Trades Union Congress (TUC) which represents more than five million people across multiple unions, now addresses the hearing.
He says those in health and social care roles were on the front line, along with shelf stackers in supermarkets, bus and train divers, delivery drivers, and cleaners.
"Far too many died," he states.
He says the occupations with the highest death rate were in the caring, leisure and process and manufacturing industries.
"Significantly, it was not just loss, it was avoidable loss," he says.
'Health systems lacked resources to respond to pandemic'
Brian Stanton for the BMA highlights another failure in not implementing surge capacity, which was identified in previous pandemic exercises.
"The public health system was not in a position to scale up its activity to respond to the pandemic due to a decade or more of reduced funding, resource cuts and reorganisation," he says.
He adds public health systems in the UK entered the pandemic without the necessary resources, workforce capacity or structures to respond at the speed and scale required.
Mistakes need to be addressed - British Medical Association
Stanton says the final key area to highlight is that "the UK entered the pandemic with poor population health, widening health inequalities and health services that had been consistently underfunded and understaffed".
He adds that before Covid-19 appeared, gains in life expectancy had already started to stall and health inequalities were widening.
Severe cuts to public health service and social security funding have negatively affected the provisions needed for good public health, he says.
"The UK went into the pandemic with a very low total number of hospital beds... which significantly hampered" their ability to cope with the number of patients.
"This - combined with workforce shortages and already high waiting lists - meant that the health service had no ability to step up capacity," Stanton says.
There were unsafe bed occupancy levels, deteriorating equipment and acute short staffing levels. This, Stanton says, is the "elephant in the room" and needs to be addressed, otherwise the same mistakes will be repeated.