During the crucial weeks before UK lockdown, Patrick Vallance reveals Britain suffered a 'big influx' of coronavirus from arrivals from Italy and Spain who were not quarantined. Mapping of the Covid-19 genome shows that UK cases come from all over the world, a large number of cases in early March were from Europe and 'seeded right the way across the country' because Brits arriving back in the UK were allowed to return home.
'Whether that was people returning from half-term, whether it is business travellers or not, we don’t know,' he told MPs.
'But a lot of the cases in the UK didn’t come from China and didn't come from the places you might have expected.
'They actually came from European imports and the high level of travel into the UK around that time. '
Giving evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee, Sir Patrick said that experts on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) had advised ministers they would have to be 'extremely draconian' in blocking travel from whole countries otherwise 'it really was not worth trying to do it.'
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