Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty admitted that England got key parts of its Covid response wrong.
Speaking on the day that the UK's death toll passed 100,000 people, Prof Whitty revealed the lessons he has learned.
But Boris Johnson, while expressing his "deep condolences" for everyone who died claimed the Government has done "everything we could".
Prof Whitty highlighted medical advancements but also admitted the Government acted too slowly when it came to the wearing of masks.
He told a Downing Street press conference: “There’s a huge amount we have learned, are learning and will learn about this.
“I will take just three broad groups.
“There’s things we’ve learned scientifically - we now understand the virus in a way we didn’t.
“And some of the science has undoubtedly changed some of our understanding of what the science meant has changed.
“For example, we were initially quite cautious about whether masks were useful. We decided they were based on increasing levels of evidence.
“We initially didn’t realise quite how strong the importance of asymptomatic transmission was, for example. I think we now recognise that’s a very major part of it.”
He added doctors had also learned things “clinically” about better treatment to bring down the death rate, such as with dexamethasone.
And he said Britain had learned things “operationally”, meaning it could now do things to cope with the virus in ways it couldn’t before.
“We’re going to have to continue to learn the lessons from this pandemic because there is a lot for us to learn from it,” he added.
Earlier in the press conference, England's Chief Medical Officer said the number of deaths “looks as if [they have] flattened out but at a very high level.”
Adding people had to be “realistic”, the Chief Medical Officer said it was still an “incredibly high number” and will only “come down relatively slowly over the next two weeks”.
He said: “We will still unfortunately be having additional deaths to add to that very sad total.” He went on: “Unfortunately we’re going to see quite a lot more deaths over the next few weeks before the effects of the vaccines begin to be felt.”
The Prime Minister tonight said he was "deeply sorry" for the total and vowed to "learn the lessons and reflect and prepare" in future.
Yet he also claimed "we did everything we could" and celebrated the vaccination total - despite a litany of complaints about PPE, Test and Trace and lockdown timings, and Britain having one of the world's highest death rates.
He also claimed Britain's readiness for a future pandemic was "colossal by comparison" to how it was before Covid-19. His Chief Scientific Advisor once said 20,000 deaths would be a "good outcome".
The PM said: "On this day I should just really repeat that I am deeply sorry for every life that has been lost and as Prime Minister I take full responsibility for everything the government has done.”
And the grim-faced Prime Minister vowed, after the storm of the pandemic is over, “we will make sure we learn the lessons and reflect and prepare.”
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