James Forsyth
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The second is care homes. It is now clear that the policy of discharging people from hospitals into care homes without waiting for a negative Covid-19 test first was a massive mistake that has made the situation in care homes far worse than it otherwise would have been. Talking to those involved in these decisions, it is clear that the problem was that the view in February and for most of March was that the asymptomatic could not transmit the virus. So, the NHS – which was under huge pressure to free up beds – thought it was safe to discharge people back to care homes who did not have a cough or temperature. We now know, though, that people are often most infectious just before they display symptoms.
Quarantine for those arriving from abroad is the third area where government policy suggests it was wrong before. If it is right to require those coming from abroad to isolate for 14 days once infections in the UK drop further, then it surely would have been the right approach in February and early March. Inside government the view is that much of the UK spread of Covid-19 came from people returning from Spring half-term holidays in Italy and Spain.
At the last two sessions of PMQs, Keir Starmer has caused Boris Johnson problems on the government’s failure to increase testing earlier and on its handling of care homes. The question for Boris Johnson is whether it is sensible for him to try and defend these mistakes or whether it would be better for him to admit that specific errors were made in trying to deal with this new virus.
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