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Government took ‘right decisions at right time’, Robert Jenrick insists after UK Covid deaths pass 100,000

<p>Robert Jenrick</p> (Getty Images)

Robert Jenrick

(Getty Images)

A Cabinet minister insisted today the Government “took the right decisions at the right time” despite the Covid-19 death toll passing 100,000 in the UK.

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick stressed there was “no textbook” in how to respond to a pandemic.

However, his comments will spark anger and astonishment among many people across the country, including some families who have lost loved ones.

The UK yesterday passed the grim milestone of more than 100,000 deaths from coronavirus within 28 days of people testing positive, and has one of the worst coronavirus death rates in the world.

The Government has been accused of repeatedly being too slow in acting to combat the virus.

However, appearing on Sky News, Mr Jenrick said: “We took the decisions that we could at the time on the basis of the information that was available to us.

“We did everything that we could to protect people’s lives and help to weather the storm and take the country through this very challenging period.

“There is no textbook as to how to respond to a pandemic like this but we do believe that we took the right decisions at the right time and now our focus is on continuing to help the country through the remaining stages of the pandemic and focus on the vaccine roll-out for which the news is good and the UK’s record holds up extremely well internationally.”

With the death toll already above 100,000 and scientists predicting it could rise by a further 50,000, Mr Jenrick also emphasised:“Every single one of those lives is an individual tragedy, there’s family and friends behind each one.

“We send our deepest condolences to them, it’s hards to believe what the whole country has been through over the course of last year but some people have been impacted very profoundly indeed.”

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