Boris Johnson kept shaking hands at public events even after his own scientific advisers warned against it, papers revealed – as the UK’s coronavirus death toll became the highest in Europe.
Some scientists urged an end to hugging and hand-shaking in early March, according to papers released by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies.
But on the same day, the Prime Minister told a No10 press conference he was still shaking the hands of people he met.
On March 3, he said: “I was at a hospital the other night, where I think a few there were actually coronavirus patients, and I shook hands with everybody, you’ll be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands.”
Two days later he shook hands with Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on ITV’s This Morning.
He was then snapped on March 9 shaking hands with boxer Anthony Joshua at the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey.
The papers emerged as the UK’s official death toll hit 29,427 – passing Italy’s, which stood at 29,315.
Deputy chief scientific adviser Dame Angela MacLean told the No10 briefing the toll was “higher than we would wish”.
She said the UK had to “get to grips” with deaths in care homes, which are still rising.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the toll was “a massive tragedy – something in this country, on this scale, in this way, we’ve never seen before”.
But he claimed it was too early to make reliable comparisons on how different nations have fared.
He said: “I don’t think we’ll get a real verdict on how well countries have done until the pandemic is over, and particularly until we’ve got comprehensive international data on all cause of mortality.”
Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “The public will rightly ask why our death rate is so high. We should take all action necessary to save lives and minimise harm.”
Tonight it was reported a mutation that makes coronavirus more contagious began spreading in Europe in February.
Vaccines in development may not be effective against it, warned researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, US, whose report has not been peer-reviewed.
It comes as ministers draw up plans for lifting lockdown restrictions despite the mounting death toll.
Mr Johnson will set out his “roadmap” of future steps on Sunday following a three-weekly review which is expected to recommend strict rules are kept in place.
But Mr Raab warned: “We need to be under no illusions, the next stage won’t be easy.”
Chief scientific officer Sir Patrick Vallance told MPs fewer than one in six Brits have any sort of antibody protection to Covid-19.
Experts have warned that the full picture of death tolls in different countries will not be known for some time and international comparisons are difficult.
Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter from the University of Cambridge said: “This is not Eurovision and it is pointless to try and rank them.”
Death certificates showed 29,648 deaths linked to coronavirus in England and Wales as of 24 April after a surge in care homes.
Once Scotland and Northern Ireland were added in the official figure stands at 32,313.
But the respected Institute and Faculty of Actuaries estimates the real figure could be as high as 55,000.
Its weekly Continuous Mortality Investigation report compared deaths up to May 4 with rates from the previous year.
But the Office for National Statistics estimated 42,000 excess deaths occurred compared with previous years in the five weeks up to April 24.
The ONS data shows coronavirus deaths in care homes surged by a third in the space of a week up to April 24.
There were 5,890 coronavirus-related care home deaths registered, up from a total of just over 3,000 by the week before.
Italy’s total does not include suspected cases, but the country has tested many more people – 1.5 million compared with under one million here.
Ministers confirmed yesterday that the number of tests carried out had fallen short of its 100,000-a-day target for the third day in a row.
Dame Angela admitted the UK was now trying to copy the success of the contact tracing policy used by South Korea – which the UK itself abandoned in March due to a shortage of capacity.
Dr Joshua Moon, of the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex Business School, said: “The UK is not just closing in on Italy in terms of number of deaths but its case fatality rate (ie the ratio of cases to deaths) is higher already.
This is a concerning indicator.
“On testing and response, we need to be considering not just Italy but other countries in Europe and comparing the testing, contact tracing, lockdown, and isolation by each.”
No10 claimed Mr Johnson would not have been aware of the paper warning against shaking hands at the time he was seen doing so.
His spokesman said: “The PM wouldn’t have seen that advice.
"The PM was very clear at the time, he was taking a number of precautionary steps including frequently washing his hands.
"Once the social distancing advice was changed, the PM’s approach changed."
