Former government adviser Dominic Cummings has claimed the UK should have locked down weeks before people were officially told to stay at home.
Mr Cummings was speaking today (Wednesday, May 26) at an evidence session with House of Commons' health and science and technology select committees on the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dominic-Cummings--Official-response-to-Covid-fell-disastrous
In this session – which remains ongoing – the former adviser made a number of assertions, including a claim about lockdown: “I think it is clear that we obviously should have locked down essentially the first week of March at the latest.”
The Recorder has data on the number of cases recorded in Havering every seven days since March 1 last year.
The numbers show that in the week up until that date, there were 131 positive coronavirus cases recorded in Havering.
In the seven days prior to March 23 - when lockdown was officially announced - 76 people were recorded as having caught the virus.
The chart below shows how these numbers unfolded until the end of April 2020.
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