UK plan was based on the wrong viruspublished at 10:55 British Summer Time 26 May 2021

10:55 BST 26 May 2021

Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

Dominic Cummings is right to suggest there was a misplaced confidence that the UK was well prepared for a pandemic.

As it was unfolding, officials were publicly speaking about how strong our infectious disease surveillance and protection systems were.

That’s not surprising. Just a few months before, the UK had been ranked as the second best prepared country globally, external. That confidence, as he says, turned out to be “completely hollow”.

Some of that is because that plan was based on the wrong virus - flu not coronavirus.

It meant assumptions about the level of infectiousness and the risk of transmission before symptoms develop or among those who do not have symptoms was massively underestimated.

Nor was the right type of personal protective equipment available.

It is also clear from the official pandemic plan that there was only one plan – mitigating the spread of a pandemic virus rather than suppressing it.

It is why, in the early days, government ministers and scientists were talking about flattening the peak rather than trying to stop it.

The UK though was not alone in this. Most of Europe had a similar approach – unlike Asian countries the continent had not had to deal in any real sense with outbreaks of Sars and Mers.

The store chain has reported big losses for last year as the pandemic took its toll on clothing sales.

Many of Scotland's public libraries remain shut despite being allowed to reopen a month ago.

Of the £84m more than £50m was spent on Covid support for islanders, the States says.

The prime minister thought Covid was “just a scare story” last February, Dominic Cummings says.

The prime minister’s former chief adviser admits that "senior advisers like me fell disastrously short" when dealing with the Covid pandemic in the UK.

Boris Johnson's ex-adviser will be answering questions about the government's handling of the pandemic.

Millions of people have been evacuated from coastal areas as the cyclone makes landfall

Boris Johnson's former aide told MPs he tried to create a "structure" around the PM to stop "extremely bad decisions".

Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Wednesday morning.

Council and NHS staff are to go door to door in parts of Dewsbury today asking people to take coronavirus tests after the so-called Indian variant was found.

Image source, PA Media

Kirklees Council said it would ask people in Savile Town and Thornhill Lees aged over 11 to take PCR tests and invite all adults to be vaccinated.

Additional testing centres are also being opened in Honley and Batley.

In the week to 21 May there were 107 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 people in Kirklees - a rise of 51% on the week before.

The increased testing for people living or working in the area is being done in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus, the council said.

People living in areas where the new variant is spreading are being asked by the government to minimise their travel. The government said it was not imposing local restrictions.

Rachel Spencer-Henshall, strategic director for public health at Kirklees Council, said: "We're focusing extra support in areas with the highest rates of infection, including the offer of vaccine appointments.

"Thankfully, we're not seeing a major impact on the number of hospital admissions related to Covid-19 in Kirklees and in the last week we had no deaths linked to the virus."

Ministers have backtracked over travel advice for eight areas that left bank holiday plans in disarray.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

Surge testing in North Kensington to detect the South African strain of Covid has ended, after no new cases were found.

Kensington and Chelsea Council and the Department of Health announced on 10 May that huge numbers of PCR tests would be sent to the W11 area.

This was after a handful of the more contagious variant, first discovered in South Africa, were found in streets near Portobello Road.

The council announced on Tuesday that the surge testing effort saw 2,026 people complete a test, with the vast majority of those being North Kensington residents.

Although new Covid cases were found, zero of them were the South African variant.

Cem Kemahli, the council’s lead member for health, said: “I’d like to thank everyone who played their part in limiting the spread of coronavirus by taking part in the enhanced testing for the variant first detected in South Africa.

"It’s vital that we keep on top of coronavirus and this testing can help identify if a variant of concern is getting into the general population.

Kensington and Chelsea Council’s infection rate for the seven days leading up to 20 May was 16 cases per 100,000 people in the local population.

This was down from an infection rate of 27 cases per 100,000 in the week before 10 May when the surge testing was deployed.

Hundreds of choirs have had to cancel rehearsals after the government said singing poses a health risk.

Baby Gracie's parents are getting updates from neonatal nurses thanks to new technology.

The Western region of Kenya has been put on high alert following a COVID-19 surge in recent days.

Kisumu, the city bordering Lake Victoria, was the first to report cases of the Indian variant in Kenya, and has now reported more infections than Nairobi, despite it only having 600,000 residents in comparison to the capital's 4 million.

The intensive care unit in the main hospital is already full - but local authorities say the higher rate of cases is down to increased testing because of the discovery of the variant, and that the disease can still be contained with social distancing and masks.

The BBC's Ferdinand Omondi is in Kisumu.

Photo: A researcher tests Covid samples in Kisumu. Credit: AFP)

Company bosses and managers talk about the impact of the pandemic on their mental health.

Rhoda Odhiambo
BBC health reporter, Nairobi

Image source, Getty Images

Kenya will receive 72,000 of Covid-19 vaccines from the Covax facility this week.

The vaccines were re-distributed from South Sudan after the country’s health officials said they could not use the jabs before their expiry date.

South Sudan received 132,000 Astra Zeneca doses from Covax in late March.

The country’s undersecretary in the ministry of health, Mayen Machout, told journalists that they were not able to use all the doses because of delays by parliament to approve the use of the vaccine.

“We also noticed that some health workers did not want to get vaccinated and a lot of time was spent training people how to give the jabs,” Dr Machout said.

South Sudan will be left with 52,000 doses that it hopes to use before they expire on 18 July, the AFP news agency reports.

In April, South Sudan said it was planning to get rid of 60,000 expired vaccines that came as a donation through the African Union.

Read more:

• Covid-19 vaccines: Why some African states can't use their vaccines

It came as Brexit disrupted trade with the EU and the pandemic boosted demand for Chinese goods.