The Guardian view on the government and coronavirus: a risky path | Editorial
How quickly the unthinkable can become reality. We are all entering a new world as the Covid-19 pandemic takes hold. Many more families in the UK will lose loved ones, the prime minister has warned: while 590 cases have been identified, officials say the true number is probably between 5 and 10,000. The government has now moved from trying to contain the outbreak, to seeking to delay it. It says it is doing so on the advice of experts. Yet there are questions about whether its policy is adequate. The editor of the medical journal the Lancet describes it as complacent. Some experts had already warned that the initial UK response had been "pathetic".
The new measures to achieve delay are minimal compared to those taken in other countries. In Italy, more than 1,000 have now succumbed. The old and other vulnerable groups will suffer. The overstretched NHS is surely not prepared for the numbers who will be falling sick in short order.
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