Covid inquiry: Chris Whitty admits Britain’s first lockdown was ‘a bit too late’

Chief medical officer Chris Whitty has told Britain’s Covid inquiry that Britain’s first lockdown in March 2020 was “a bit too late”.

Speaking at the inquiry on Tuesday (21 November), Mr Whitty said: “I was very aware that we essentially had two different things we were trying to balance.

“We had the risk of going too early, in which case you get all the damages from this with actually fairly minimal impact on the epidemic. And, the risk of going too late, in which case you get all the problems of the pandemic running away.

“My view is, with the benefit of hindsight, we went a bit too late on the first wait.”