The Welsh Government’s cabinet discussed the threat posed by Covid as the virus spread across the world, just a month after the chief medical officer warned there was a “significant risk” of it reaching Wales. research into the pandemic has heard.
At the start of the three-week hearings in Cardiff, the inquiry was told this was more than three weeks after the UK government’s Cabinet debated Covid, with relatives describing the delay as a missed opportunity to ‘armour themselves for the battle’.
The Labour-led government was also accused of “a massive failure of infection control” when it allowed patients to be discharged from hospitals to care homes without being tested. It was suggested that Prime Minister Mark Drakeford’s government should have banned mass gatherings earlier.
The Welsh part of the UK Covid inquiry started with a moving film in which families described losing relatives to the virus and survivors revealed how it had affected them. One told how her husband had begged her not to take him to hospital because he was infected. Others recalled how loved ones had died while stuck in Covid wards, separated from their families.
A disabled person told how his mental health had been affected as he felt like he was being ‘kept in prison’ during lockdowns. Others expressed sadness at their failure to organize a proper funeral.
Tom Poole KC, a counsel to the inquiry, said the number of Covid deaths in Wales was more than 12,300. “By any measure, that is a shocking figure and a terrible loss of life,” he said.
Poole said people from disadvantaged backgrounds, people from ethnic minorities or with disabilities, older people and women in Wales have been disproportionately affected by Covid.
Detailing the chronology of the pandemic, Poole said on January 24, 2020 that the Welsh government had been warned by its chief medical officer, Frank Atherton, that there was a “significant risk” of Covid reaching Wales. The British Cabinet discussed this on January 31, but the Welsh Cabinet did not do so until February 25.
Poole said: “Does the fact that Covid was not discussed by the Welsh Cabinet in January indicate that the threat of the virus was not being taken as seriously as it should have been or that the Welsh Government thought the UK Government was putting matters under had control? and there was no need to take independent action? Was there a lack of national strategic leadership and coordination from the Welsh Government in this crucial early period?”
He said Welsh Labor has called off its 2020 spring conference but is still willing to allow 70,000 people to gather in Cardiff for a Wales-Scotland rugby match on March 14. The match was eventually canceled by the Welsh Rugby Union, but not until 20,000 Scottish rugby fans had arrived in the Welsh capital. He said two concerts of the The Welsh band Stereophonics also continued.
Poole said: “Gatherings were not without some risk and a ban would have reinforced other good social distancing practices.”
The lawyer said that in March and April 2020, more than 1,000 Welsh patients were discharged from hospital to care homes without testing. He said: “There is no doubt that a widespread failure of infection control has at least partly contributed to the influx of infected but untested patients.”
Later in the pandemic, the Welsh government imposed several restrictions on England. Poole said: “We will investigate the extent to which the disagreements were based on good advice … whether the disagreements were substantive or merely cosmetic.”
The issue of the disappearance of WhatsApp messages from politicians was raised during the investigation. Poole said text or WhatsApp messages from ministers were “shedding light” on some key decisions. He said there had been instances where informal communications from Welsh politicians had been deleted and said: “The inquiry will want to know why and how such messages are now not available for inspection.”
Nia Gowman, a lawyer for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru group, told the inquiry that then Welsh Health Secretary and now Prime Ministerial candidate Vaughan Gething and a senior adviser to Drakeford set up the disappearing messages feature on WhatsApp during the pandemic.
Gowman said: “The limited messages released clearly show WhatsApp and text messages are being used to discuss government matters where they should not have been. They show senior special advisers to the Welsh Government suspiciously and systematically deleting communications. They show special advisors reminding themselves and others that they had agreed to clear the WhatsApp chat once a week.”
Andrew Kinnier KC, for the Welsh Government, said: “Neither Welsh ministers nor senior officials used WhatsApp or any other form of informal communication as a substitute for or in addition to decision-making.”