One of Boris Johnson’s former top scientific advisers on the coronavirus outbreak has said the UK’s death toll could have been halved had the lockdown been introduced a week earlier.
Neil Ferguson, whose study at Imperial College in mid-March persuaded ministers to impose an aggressive lockdown strategy, said putting in place stringent measures earlier would have “seen many fewer deaths”.
The prime minister is facing growing scrutiny over his handling of the pandemic after the UK death toll surpassed 40,000. A total of 40,883 people have died as of June 9, while the total number of excess deaths — those above the average of the previous five years — has topped 60,000.
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