Let's have a quick recap of what has happened so far this morning:

• The second round of public hearings for the Covid inquiry started with a powerful impact film hearing from bereaved families
• Baroness Hallett said this stage of the inquiry will hear evidence about key decision-making in Westminster between early January and February 2022
• She said there is a pressing need for the inquiry to make decisions "before the next pandemic"
• Hugo Keith KC updated us on pandemic figures, outlining that those over 70 had a 10,000-times greater risk of dying than those under 15 during the pandemic

• Around 1.9 million people are suffering from long Covid, Keith, lead counsel for the inquiry, said
• He questioned whether the government acted with sufficient speed in the early months of 2020 when the virus emerged

As a reminder, we're pausing our text updates now but you can watch the rest of today's hearing by clicking Play at the top of this page.

The Covid inquiry has now paused for a short break and will return just after 12:00 BST.

We're going to pause our text updates here but you can continue to watch the live stream by clicking Play at the top of this page. Our live text coverage will resume if there are any new developments.

An email is shown to the inquiry dated 25 January 2020 from epidemiologist Mark Woolhouse to Catherine Calderwood, Scotland's former chief medical officer.

Woolhouse said that if the early infection numbers were to be put into an epidemiological model for Scotland, in over a year or so "at least half the population will become infected".

"The gross mortality rate will triple and the health system will become completely overwhelmed," Woolhouse wrote.

He stresses though, at the time of writing, this is based on official WHO central estimates and is not a worst case scenario.

"The worst case scenario is considerably worse," he adds.

Hugo Keith KC is talking about whether the government acted with sufficient speed in the early months of 2020 after the emergence of the virus in China.

He says this is of "central importance the inquiry" as some argue that had the government acted with greater urgency, it might not have been forced into making the "far-reaching, extraordinary decisions" it later did.

Keith is going through a timeline of when the global virus was reported in different countries that year.

He quotes professor Neil Ferguson, epidemiologist at Imperial College London, who says that Wuhan, in China, was harbouring more than 1,000 cases by 6 January - more than 10 times the official figure

After the international comparison of excess deaths, Keith goes on to give more figures from the pandemic in the UK:

• The median age of people who died in the pandemic was 82
• Those over 70 had a 10,000-times greater risk of dying than those under 15
• On average, each person who died of Covid lost over 10 years of life, according to estimates
• Mortality was 2.6 times higher in the most deprived areas, compared to the least deprived
• People from Bangladeshi, Pakistani, and black communities had highest mortality rates

The inquiry has no formal deadline but is due to hold public hearings until 2026.

Its work will be split into six parts with the first looking at resilience, preparedness, core UK decision-making, political governance and the impact of Covid-19 on the NHS.

Then, with hearings in 2024 and 2025, the inquiry will look at the UK care sector, vaccines, anti-viral treatment and government procurement.

Public hearings will be held in all four UK nations.

It is worth noting Scotland has announced it will hold a separate inquiry.

Charts showing the UK's daily deaths from Covid-19 are shown on the screens as Hugo Keith KC takes the inquiry through some data.

He notes the two peaks in the first and second waves of the pandemic.

A third chart shows hospitalisations from 1 April 2020 which peaked at 21,000 in the first wave, Keith says.

During the second wave people in hospital doubled to just under 40,000, he adds.

At the peak of the Omicron wave there were as many as five million people in the UK infected.

A final chart shows excess deaths against other countries against their population - only Italy is higher than the UK, the graph shows.

Keith highlights there are differences between countries such as France, South Korea, Sweden and Denmark which still all had lower excess deaths.

Image source, UK Covid inquiry

Hugo Keith KC says the inquiry will hear from former Home Secretary Dame Priti Patel, former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch and Justin Tomlinson who served as minister for disabled people, and other political advisors.

He adds that ONS statistics show there are around 1.9 million people suffering from long Covid.

He says this phase of the inquiry will look at the events of those "extraordinary days" between January 2020 and March 2020 which "charted the course of what was to come".

Shortly after this morning's session began, the inquiry was shown a 20-minute video of bereaved families and people affected by Covid-19.

Here is the opening section - some people may find the content upsetting.

Baroness Hallett returns to the inquiry after that deeply moving impact film and invites opening submissions from lead counsel for the inquiry Hugo Keith KC.

The inquiry will now examine how the government discharged its decisions around the control of the virus, lockdowns, shutting schools and businesses, he says.

He asks: "Did the government serve the people well, or did it fail them?

Keith says the government response to the pandemic must be judged against the number of people who died, and says the number of deaths across UK is over 230,000.

As a reminder, the inquiry is now watching a 20 minute film featuring emotional testimonies of people sharing their personal stories of losing loved ones during the pandemic.

You can watch by pressing play at the top of this page. Some people may find this content distressing.

Baroness Hallett insists the inquiry is "not ignoring" the bereaved families as she notes the room will shortly see a "moving" impact film.

She says 14 people from across the UK appear in the film to talk about the devastating impact the pandemic has had on their lives.

Funerals, care homes, schools, loneliness, isolation, long Covid, mental health and lockdown rule breaking form part of the 20-minute video, she adds.

Baroness Hallett emphasises the video is powerful and she invites those who do not wish to see the film to leave the room.

Baroness Hallet says the inquiry will hear from four representatives from bereaved families and then key workers, disabled people and those who had long Covid.

She says their evidence will "enable us to put the decision making into context and help us establish the extent to which decision makers took into account the interest of such groups and the impact on them when making their decisions".

She says they simply do not have time to call more witnesses but the need for her to make decisions for the next pandemic is pressing.

Baroness Hallett opens today's hearing by saying "today marks another important milestone".

The focus of the second phase will be on governance and key decision making at a time when the pandemic was at its worse and one which caused so much suffering, she says.

Baroness Hallett notes the bereaved family members are outside the hearing centre this morning to "remind us why we are all here".

This phase, she says, expects to hear from experts and 15 witnesses.

Here's a reminder of some of the key things to know about the UK's Covid inquiry:

• It is being chaired by Baroness Hallett who is a former Court of Appeal judge. She previously led the inquests into the 7 July London bombings in 2005
• Witnesses will be announced each week, but we expect to hear from key politicians, scientists, unions, health and care organisations, Covid bereavement groups and more
• Members of the public are being encouraged to share their stories with the inquiry by filling in this form online, external
• No-one will be found guilty or innocent during this inquiry
• This is about going through what happened and learning lessons
• Any recommendations made by the inquiry at the end of this process do not have to be adopted by governments

WhatsApp messages sent between the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other senior officials are expected to form an important part of the evidence during the second part of the inquiry.

The inquiry asked for unredacted WhatsApp messages between Johnson and 40 colleagues,, external but the government launched a legal challenge, arguing some of the requested material was irrelevant. In July the High Court confirmed the documents should be provided.

According to reports by the Guardian, external, Rishi Sunak has told the inquiry he did “not have access” to the WhatsApp messages during his time as chancellor and had failed to back them up.

Messages sent by Johnson before May 2021 have now been accessed, after a delay, because these were held on a mobile phone which had been turned off and securely locked away after a security breach.

Covid Inquiry focuses on government as stakes risepublished at 10:08 British Summer Time 3 October 2023

10:08 BST 3 October 2023

Jim Reed
BBC News health reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Decisions made by Boris Johnson, his government and his team of scientists in the early days of the pandemic are to come under intense scrutiny as the second part of the Covid inquiry begins.

Until Christmas, the spotlight will be on key decisions made to try to control the spread of the virus, from lockdowns to border controls to face masks.

But what is at stake for the ex-prime minister and his former team?

On 7 March 2020, England beat Wales in front of 82,000 in a Six Nations rugby match at Twickenham. Johnson was in the crowd shaking hands with England captain Owen Farrell.

On the same day, newspaper front pages were full of one subject.

Read the full story here.

Image source, PA Media

Although established and funded by government, the Covid inquiry is being led by an independent chair, Baroness Heather Hallett.

This morning we'll hear opening statements from Baroness Hallett, a former High Court judge and crossbench peer in the House of Lords.

She presided over the inquests into the terrorist attacks in London on 7 July 2005 and she was the first woman to chair the Bar Council.

You can listen to Radio 4's profile on her here.

The first phase of the Covid Inquiry wrapped up in July, after it took evidence from 69 independent experts and former and current government officials and ministers.

They were asked about the UK's planning for a pandemic and the state of the healthcare system when Covid struck.

We learned about whether the pandemic planning was too focused on flu; whether lessons from other countries could have been learnt and if earlier austerity policies inflicted damage.

Brexit's impact was analysed as was front-line prep for a pandemic and why a lockdown wasn't planned for.

Read more about what happened during the first round here.

Emily McGarvey
Live reporter

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the second round of the UK’s Covid inquiry.

This phase will focus on central government’s response to the pandemic and how ministers made decisions, as well as how Westminster worked with devolved nations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

This morning we’ll hear the opening statements from Baroness Hallett, who chairs the inquiry. We may hear more about Rishi Sunak’s WhatsApp messages, after he told the inquiry he’s unable to provide them from his time as chancellor during the pandemic because he failed to back them up, the Guardian reports., external

I’m joined by our writers Rachel Russell and Thomas Mackintosh who will bring you the opening statements from today’s session.