Swinney speaks of ‘unbearable’ loss of life from Covid on lockdown anniversary
The first lockdown was imposed across the UK on March 24 2020.
John Swinney has spoken of the “unbearable” loss of life during the Covid pandemic, but insisted the Scottish Government “did all that it could” to help the public “at a time of great jeopardy”.
His comments came five years on from the first national lockdown being imposed across the UK on March 24 2020 – with many businesses shut, workers furloughed and most schoolchildren told to study at home.
Across the UK, just under 227,000 people died who had the virus listed as a cause of death – with more than 16,000 fatalities in Scotland.
Speaking to journalists during a visit to Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire, Mr Swinney said: “Covid was an enormous challenge to everyone in our society and the Scottish Government did all that it could to support and to assist the population at a time of great jeopardy.”
He was deputy first minister, with Nicola Sturgeon the first minister, when the virus first arrived in Scotland in 2020.
He praised Ms Sturgeon for having “led the country formidably during the pandemic”, adding she devoted “all of her focus and attention to making sure the country was kept safe”.
Mr Swinney recalled: “There were many elements of the Covid pandemic that tests our public services, obviously the health service adapted significantly to meet the needs to individuals, and the education system had to reform to make sure young people were supported in their education.
“There was, of course, a loss of life, which is unbearable, and the Scottish Government acted in all the ways that it could to make sure we avoided the loss of life with all of the interventions that we made during the course of the pandemic.”
His comments came after former Scottish health secretary Jeane Freeman said on Sunday that she “absolutely” understands the anger directed at government from those who lost someone to Covid-19.
Saying she had made what she believed were the “best decisions with the information I had at the time”, Ms Freeman said: “There is no getting away from the fact that people died, people were harmed and there is a long-term impact.”
Ms Freeman said many of the decisions made by ministers at the time were “probably worth a reconsideration”.
She added: “There’s certainly things to be done to prepare us to be in a better starting place than we were for the next pandemic that will come along.”
