Britain had a head start on Covid-19, but our leaders squandered it | Devi Sridhar

The government's dithering and lack of transparency will cost many thousands of lives

• Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global health at the University of Edinburgh
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Those of us who have been tracking the novel coronavirus since December can easily identify its key milestones. There was mid-January, when human to human transmission of coronavirus was confirmed. Then later that month Hubei province hit 500 cases, the unprecedented lockdown extended to almost 60 million people, and the Lancet published a study showing that a third of patients require admission to intensive care, and 29% get so bad that they need ventilation. By the end of February, a sobering WHO-China joint mission press conference illustrated the massive policy response in China - and, on 29 February, the UK saw its first case of local transmission.

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