DEADLY MISTAKES

 » The dithering that cost lives  » Failures on PPE, tests and homes  » Plans slammed by other nations

- NIGEL NELSON

BRITAIN’S failings in combatting the pandemic are laid bare by the tragic case of care worker Sonya Kaygan – just 26 when coronavirus took her life.

Sonya had to order her own face masks on Amazon but was seriously ill in hospital by the time they arrived.

At the care home where she worked, Elizabeth Lodge in Enfield, North London, 25 of 90 residents have died since the beginning of March, at least 17 linked to coronavirus.

Yet the first was not tested until April 29, 34 days after the home’s first suspected case and two weeks after Health Secretary Matt Hancock pledged a test for all who needed it.

Andrew Knight, of Elizabeth Lodge’s private provider CareUK, said: “Testing has come way too late to have any meaningful effect on keeping the virus out of our homes.”

The tragedy of Sonya highlights three of the Government’s four failures: Bungled testing, lack of PPE and the near-criminal neglect of care homes.

The fourth is lives unnecessarily lost because lockdown came too late. Yesterday’s toll was 346, lifting UK deaths to 31,587.

Incompetence and complacency have given Britain an international reputation as the world’s Covid-19 basket case, with criticism from Australia, Canada, America, Italy and Turkey.

A German magazine and an Austrian newspaper branded the UK, with the continent’s highest toll, the “problem child of Europe”.

Professor Martin McKee, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “The countries that moved fast have curtailed the epidemic. The countries that delayed have not. It’s as simple as that.”

Lancet medical journal editor Dr Richard Horton added: “The handling of the Covid-19 crisis in the UK is the most serious science policy failure in a generation.”