'The council aims to learn lessons from government failings' says Cumberland's director of public health Colin Cox who's published a report following the national Covid 19 enquiry.

 The government's Covid Enquiry report has been published to examine the ‘resilience and preparedness of the UK’ during the pandemic lockdown between 2020-2021.

Cumberland’s Director of Public Health Colin Cox has examined key findings ‘manifested in Cumbria’ during the pandemic. The report recommends some changes to Cumbria’s pandemic preparations. 

The national Covid 19 enquiry suggests the UK had prepared ‘for the wrong pandemic’- a statement Mr Cox had said was true also on a local scale, with the local authority following on very much from the national guidance.

Mr Cox said: “The report says that the UK’s strategy for dealing with pandemics was abandoned almost immediately ‘on first contact with the enemy’ if you like.

“And that certainly feels that was true at a national level, but it was also true at a local level because Cumbria was prepared for an influenza pandemic, we were essentially following the national processes and systems.”

He said that the local and national plans did not account for things such as masking or lockdowns and that ‘there were lessons to be learnt’ from Covid 19, both in The Cumberland Council area and across the county of Cumbria. 

At a Cumberland council Health and Wellbeing Board held in Allerdale House on Thursday, September 26 councillors commended the report and requested that the council review the Cumbrian Pandemic Plan in light of the Covid 19 enquiry.

Cllr Elaine Lynch, who sits on the Health and Wellbeing Board said that she hoped their would be local plans in the future, with some of the responsibilities for pandemic preparation and responses being devolved to local health leaders.

Cllr Lynch said: “This is very personal to me, because very early on in the pandemic my mother went into hospital, in fact it was only a couple of days before the first lockdown.

“She was tested in hospital when she went in and she didn’t have Covid 19, but she caught it in hospital and subsequently died so she was one of the earliest deaths in the first lockdown."