No 10 is facing questions about why it did not disclose that Sir Mark Sedwill, the UK’s most senior civil servant, had coronavirus at about the same time as Boris Johnson, Chris Whitty and Matt Hancock were struck down with the illness.
The revelation – many weeks after Sedwill was diagnosed – means that almost all the senior people in charge of the UK’s coronavirus response had the illness in late March or early April.
The World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on face masks has remained consistent during the coronavirus pandemic. It has stuck to the line that masks are for healthcare workers – not the public.
“Wearing a medical mask is one of the prevention measures that can limit the spread of certain respiratory viral diseases, including Covid-19. However, the use of a mask alone is insufficient to provide an adequate level of protection, and other measures should also be adopted,” the WHO has stated.
Nevertheless, as some countries have eased lockdown conditions, they have been making it mandatory to wear face coverings outside, as a way of trying to inhibit spread of the virus. This is in the belief that the face covering will prevent people who cough and sneeze ejecting the virus any great distance.
There is no robust scientific evidence – in the form of trials – that ordinary masks block the virus from infecting people who wear them. There is also concerns the public will not understand how to use a mask properly, and may get infected if they come into contact with the virus when they take it off and then touch their faces.
Also underlying the WHO’s concerns is the shortage of high-quality protective masks for frontline healthcare workers.
Nevertheless, masks do have a role when used by people who are already infected. It is accepted that they can block transmission to other people. Given that many people with Covid-19 do not show any symptoms for the first days after they are infected, masks clearly have a potential role to play, especially on crowded public transport as people return to work..
Sarah Boseley Health editor
It raises particular questions about why Johnson allowed a crucial cabinet meeting to go ahead on Tuesday 24 March, one day after the lockdown was imposed, which was attended in person by Whitty, the chief medical officer, Hancock, the health secretary, and Sedwill, the cabinet secretary.
Johnson, Hancock and Whitty confirmed they tested positive for the virus two days later. Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s chief adviser, was also later confirmed to have had coronavirus at about the same time.
Sedwill was working at home throughout his illness but No 10 did not reveal at the time that he had tested positive.
When asked almost daily at briefings about the state of Sedwill’s health, Downing Street said he was “fine” or working as normal.
Sedwill, who is also national security adviser, is the most powerful civil servant in Britain.
Asked whether the public had been misled, Johnson’s official spokesman said that he personally only became aware recently that Sedwill had been ill and that the cabinet secretary had continued to work over that period.
The spokesman did not have the exact dates that Sedwill had coronavirus but Civil Service World reported that he tested positive in April and was ill at about the same time as Johnson.
Asked why Sedwill’s illness and the date he tested positive had been kept from the public, a Cabinet Office spokesman said: “After experiencing mild symptoms the cabinet secretary tested positive for coronavirus in April. In line with the government’s guidance, the cabinet secretary self-isolated. He continued to lead the civil service’s implementation of the government’s response to coronavirus throughout this period.”
Downing Street has already been criticised for allowing daily press conferences to continue without physical distancing in place while the crisis was underway.
In the last week of March, when the lockdown was imposed, Johnson, Hancock, Sedwill and Whitty all chose to attend in person.
Another senior figure to have had the virus at about that time was former scientific adviser Prof Neil Ferguson, whose modelling team at Imperial College influenced the decision to impose a lockdown.
