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Scotland\u2019s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon and former deputy first minister John Swinney will give evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Ms Sturgeon has repeatedly said the pandemic was one of the hardest things she has ever had to deal with in her political career.<\/p>\n
In her resignation speech as first minister, she said: \u00a0\u201cLeading this country through the Covid pandemic is by far the toughest thing I\u2019ve done.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt may well be the toughest thing I ever do. I certainly hope so.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow by no stretch of the imagination was my job the hardest in the country during that time.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the weight of responsibility was immense and it\u2019s only very recently, I think, that I\u2019ve started to comprehend, let alone process, the physical and mental impact of it on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scotland, like other countries throughout the world, was dealing with a virus which was unknown and new<\/p>\n
Jeane Freeman, former Scottish health secretary<\/p>\n
On Wednesday senior Scottish Government officials began giving evidence to the inquiry.<\/p>\n
Jeane Freeman, the former cabinet secretary for health and sport, said that while Scotland could have better handled the pandemic, there was ultimately \u201cno plan\u201d that could have helped the country cope with Covid-19.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cThere were certainly areas where Scotland could have been better prepared in terms of the underlying structure and delivery of all those recommendations.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Scotland, like other countries throughout the world, was dealing with a virus which was unknown and new.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo in that sense, I don\u2019t believe there is a plan that would have been possible that would have been able, in and of itself, to cope with Covid-19.\u201d<\/p>\n
The inquiry will also hear from Sir Jeremy Farrar, former director of the Wellcome Trust and current chief scientist at the World Health Organisation.<\/p>\n
He will be joined by Catherine Frances, director general for local government, resilience and communities at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emails Scotland\u2019s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon and former deputy first minister John Swinney will give evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry on Thursday. Ms Sturgeon has repeatedly said the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n