Timeline of failure.

“The committee – which includes ministers, intelligence chiefs and military generals – gathers at moments of great peril such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters and other threats to the nation and is normally chaired by the prime minister.” (Sunday Times)

Fewer than 300 people out of the 18.1 million who entered the UK in the three months prior to the coronavirus lockdown were formally quarantined. The number of potentially infected individuals entering the UK from coronavirus-affected countries in that period is thought to be in the tens of thousands. (Guardian)

(Spectator)

(Spectator)

"Stopping all leisure activities, including public gatherings such as at bars and restaurants, would be expected to have a much larger effect on the population-level spread of the epidemic," a report from government scientists states. The findings will be presented the next day at a Cobra meeting which Boris Johnson will fail to attend. (Government website)

(ITV News)

A report from government scientists is presented, suggesting closing bars and restaurants could have a significant impact in stopping the spread of the virus. The Prime Minister is yet to attend a single meeting of the coronavirus emergency response committee. (Spectator)

Sir Andrew Parker, then MI5 chief, enacts the Security Service's pandemic plan. Parker is believed to have taken the decision immediately after hearing the grim Covid-19 prognosis from government scientists at a February Cobra meeting. (The Times)

The PM and Matt Hancock fail to dial in to a conference call with EU leaders and health ministers to discuss coronavirus response planning, despite being invited. Over the next six weeks they will fail to attend a further seven such calls. (Reuters)

(Spectator)

Looking back at this time, a Senior Downing St adviser will later say: "There’s no way you’re at war if your PM isn’t there. And what you learn about Boris was he didn’t chair any meetings. He liked his country breaks. He didn’t work weekends. There was a real sense that he didn’t do urgent crisis planning. It was... like people feared he would be." (Sunday Times)

(Mirror)

A paper from government scientists advises that a combination of measures including school closures, home isolation and voluntary household quarantine could substantially reduce the peak of the virus. (Government website)

A summary of how Dominic Cummings described the Government’s strategy, according to a witness who later spoke to the Sunday Times. He denies it. (Sunday Times)

In 2019, the Government's own National Security Risk Assessment warned of the severe risk from a coronavirus pandemic. The Government failed to heed even basic recommended preparations. Instead, Brexit preparations took priority over training key workers for a pandemic, and emergency PPE stockpiles severely dwindled or went out of date following years of austerity cuts. (Sunday Times)

(Telegraph)

(Reuters)

Chairing his first Cobra meeting about the disease, the PM is confronted with estimates of half a million deaths in the UK. Despite these chilling warnings from its own pandemic modelling panel, the Government declines another opportunity to join EU countries jointly buying essential PPE, including overalls, gloves and face masks. (Sky News)

As chronic PPE shortages and other failures will soon reveal, Britain is not in fact prepared. (Sky News)

"I’m shaking hands continuously. I was at a hospital the other night where I think there were actually a few coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody, you’ll be pleased to know. I continue to shake hands." He adds: "I want to stress that for the vast majority of the people of this country, we should be going about our business as usual." (Guardian)

Following a 70% spike in coronavirus cases in the UK, the Government stops providing daily updates on cases – instead moving to weekly updates. Ministers will later U-turn amid accusations it is withholding vital information. (Guardian)

(BBC News)

In the absence of clear government direction many major organisations, businesses and sporting bodies have cancelled events or implemented urgent action plans. Meanwhile Boris Johnson takes his pregnant fiancé to Twickenham. (Express)

A paper prepared for a scientific committee advising the government's coronavirus strategy calls in stark terms for a lockdown: a full two weeks before lockdown is implemented. (Channel 4 News)

(BBC News)

The festival organisers cite Johnson's attendance at the rugby three days earlier as part of their rationale for going ahead. Data will later reveal a spike in cases in the region after the event. (Guardian)

UK government allows the Champions League match between Liverpool and Atletico Madrid to go ahead, seeing 3,000 football fans travel from Madrid to Merseyside. 52,000 people attend the match. An investigation will later be launched into a regional spike in cases. (Guardian)

Following a briefing from a Government source Peston writes: "The strategy of the British government... is to allow the virus to pass through the entire population so that we acquire herd immunity." (ITV News)

(Independent)

The Government is presented with "shattering" findings from Imperial College modelling. Untrammelled, the virus could kill half a million people. The Government's herd immunity plan is projected to kill a quarter of a million. It is critical that action is taken urgently to suppress the virus. Instead it will be a further 11 days before Johnson introduces a lockdown. (Sunday Times)

(Politico)

"Prime Minister Boris Johnson has largely kept Britain open, opting for more targeted measures," says the newspaper, "a strategy that has startled some epidemiologists." (New York Times)

(Guardian)

(Independent)

“Communities will become immune to it and that’s going to be an important part of controlling this longer term,” says Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance. “About 60 per cent is the sort of figure you need to get herd immunity.” The strategy would require 40 million Britons to become infected. (Financial Times)

Government changes its guidance on PPE, advising NHS staff to wear less protective equipment in all but the most high-risk situations. (BBC News)

Just two days before telling the public to stop all non-essential contact, Johnson throws a baby shower for his fiancé and her friends at Chequers. (Mirror)

Stereophonics play the Welsh capital, while across town the Wales vs Scotland Six Nations rugby match is postponed – by the organisers, not the Government. (ITV News)

Despite governments across Europe increasing measures to counter the virus, later analysis will show that Johnson's dithering resulted in a huge spike in cases, from 200,000 on 14 March to 1.5 million on 23 March. (ITV News)

At this point the UK has 1,400 confirmed cases and at least 35 deaths. (BBC News)

The government requests that the public avoid non-essential contact and travel, but the measures stop short of a lockdown and mass gatherings are still allowed. (Fortune)

The comment is made during a conference call with CEOs to discuss life-saving ventilator production. (Politico)

The claim, from frontline NHS staff, follows acute shortages of PPE, including gowns, eye protection and face masks. (Bloomberg)

Despite the urging of the WHO, the UK has not reinstated contact tracing. Meanwhile, tracing continues to great effect in other countries tackling the virus, including Germany, South Korea and Singapore. Two months later the UK will still not have a national contact tracing app. (Guardian)

This move enables the required standard of PPE to be lowered for hospital staff. (British Medical Journal)

A Government diktat tells NHS hospitals to move elderly patients into care homes without testing for Covid-19. A Whitehall official will later state that the policy was designed as a “stiff broom” to free up capacity in hospitals. The policy is linked to a later explosion of cases in care homes. (Telegraph)

The UK finally closes schools, cafes, pubs and restaurants. The move comes later than in any comparable European country. (BBC)

“The country has a perfectly adequate supply of PPE,” says Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jenny Harries, stating that supply issues have been "completely resolved". Two weeks later the British Medical Association will report acute shortages in dozens of NHS trusts across the UK, putting frontline NHS staff at risk. (The Lancet)

"I hope to get to see her," he tells Downing Street press conference. (Independent)

(Daily Mail)

A cabinet source will later state: “We didn’t want to go down this route in the first place – public and media pressure pushed the lockdown, we went with the science." In reality, many scientists were urging a much earlier lockdown. (Telegraph)

In damning testimony to a Parliamentary committee, Lancet editor Richard Horton slams the Government for failing to heed evidence of the severity of coronavirus back in January and thinking it could manage "a controlled epidemic". (House of Commons Science and Technology Committee)

An Istanbul-based t-shirt salesman sees a UK Government appeal for PPE and sends an email to the Department for Health. The Government agrees to buy 400,000 gowns from him. (Telegraph)

Dominic Cummings is seen running from Downing Street shortly after the announcement. (Telegraph)

Despite his wife being ill with suspected Covid-19 and himself exhibiting possible symptoms, this weekend Cummings drives his wife and child to his parents' country home in Durham, later sparking a national controversy. With the country in lockdown, the 260 mile trip from London is counter to Government rules which Cummings himself helped to write. (Telegraph)

Only 150,000 tests have been carried out across the UK. (Evening Standard)

The revelation comes from the British In Vitro Diagnostics Association, which represents 110 companies that make up most of the UK’s testing sector. (Financial Times)

PPE shortages reported in more than 30 hospital trusts, according to the British Medical Association. (Guardian)

Matt Hancock will later say the scientific evidence is "extremely weak," before U-turning on 4 June. (inews)

The London hospital was built in just nine days and opened to much fanfare. In the following 17 days, however, the hospital will treat just 41 Covid-19 patients, while turning away 50 more requiring critical care largely due to a shortage of nurses. (Guardian)

17.5 million antibody tests ordered by the Government – which Boris Johnson described as a "game changer" – are found to be unreliable, failing to detect up to half of coronavirus cases. (Guardian)

The Government is criticised for failing to deploy thousands of contact tracing experts it has at its disposal. It will be another 11 days before ministers announce plans to restart contact tracing. (Guardian)

To date, only 208,000 tests have been carried out in the UK - just one-fifth of those conducted in Germany. (Fortune)

Johnson's top adviser is spotted with his child and wife (on her birthday) visiting local beauty spot Barnard Castle. In a bizarre press conference, Cummings will later claim he had only undertaken the 60 mile round trip in order to test his eyesight. (Guardian)

(The Sun)

The UK has now missed at least four opportunities to join the EU's joint PPE procurement scheme. (BBC News)

Ministers' call for UK manufacturers to embody the 'Blitz spirit' and shift their manufacturing capacity to ventilators has largely been a tactical misstep. A lack of clarity over what was needed saw the majority of non-specialist manufacturers trying to 'reinvent the wheel' and submit prototypes for ventilators which are unsuitable for treating Covid-19 patients. (Financial Times)

The gowns do not arrive. (BBC News)

(Guardian)

Despite scrambling the RAF to collect vital PPE from Turkey, the supplies fail to materialise. Medical workers say they may not be able to continue treating coronavirus patients as hospitals begin to run out of crucial protective equipment. (Sun)

The Government has failed to secure 16 million face masks for the NHS in the past month, it is revealed, as manufacturers' offers of help were repeatedly met with silence. Instead, millions of pieces of PPE are being shipped from the UK to Europe. (Telegraph)

Calls grow for an inquiry into the "grotesque" failure to provide adequate protective gear to frontline staff, following the news that 80 health and social care staff have died from Covid-19. They are disproportionately from the BAME community. (Politics Home)

Gloucestershire hospitals NHS trust, which covers Cheltenham, has now recorded 125 deaths, roughly double that of two nearby trusts in Bristol (58 each), and those covering Swindon (67) and Bath (46). (Guardian)

Just 32,000 of the expected 400,000 gowns arrive in Britain. It is only enough to last a few hours on the coronavirus frontline. (Health Service Journal)

The Government announces it is training an 'army' of 15,000 tracers within the next three weeks, resuming a policy it scrapped in early March, finally mimicking the 'test, trace, isolate' strategy which has proven effective in South Korea, where Covid-19 deaths have remained under 250, despite a similar-sized population to the UK. (Times)

The initiative will make it "easier, faster, and simpler for any essential worker in England, who needs a test, to get a test," says Health Secretary Matt Hancock. (ITV News)

Website for home testing kits made available to 10 million key workers runs out within minutes of opening as only 5,000 kits are made available for the first day. (Bloomberg)

As fatalities spiked in care homes, the government rejected a radical 11-point action plan to lockdown England's care homes, presented by public health officials. (Guardian)

As the virus spread, the move left health workers in care homes in the dark about the extent of infections. (BBC News)

At this point Britain has the third highest number of Covid deaths on the planet. (Conservative Party)

The Government's testing target is 'met' by mailing out tens of thousands of tests rather than conducting them. In the coming days the tests will fall well below the 100,000 target. Later investigations will also show double-counting of multiple tests on the same person, meaning that testing has in fact never reached more than 80,000 people per day. (Guardian)

Sir David Spiegelhalter, the author of a study cited by the Prime Minister as a reason not to compare the UK's coronavirus death toll with other countries, requests that the Government stop misrepresenting his work. (Guardian)

(Guardian)

Some of the 400,000 gowns ordered from a Turkish t-shirt salesman do not meet British safety standards. Just 4,500 have been given to the NHS as Johnson's spokesperson says the supplier is being contacted about replacements or a refund. The supplier says he has received no complaints. (BBC)

Following a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee today, Johnson will not host another session for at least a month. (Observer)

It is only the second time Johnson has made a Commons statement on anything in 2020. (Politico)

The Government abandoned "the most frail and vulnerable" in care homes, says Nadra Ahmed, chair of the National Care Association. (BBC News)

A blistering editorial in the prestigious British Medical Journal condemns the Government's inadequate response to the coronavirus crisis as "too little, too late, too flawed". The Government "ignored warnings" and presided over a response which was neither "well prepared nor remotely adequate", failing in its duty to protect the public and health workers. (BMJ)

Contact tracers in the UK are receiving inadequate and confused training, with some disclosing that they are being paid to do next to nothing, an investigation reveals. (Guardian)

Multiple samples from the same patient are being recorded as separate tests in official figures, UK public health officials admit. (Telegraph)

Many vulnerable people in England identified as 'high risk', including cancer patients and those with asthma and liver problems, are told that they will no longer receive government support and should stop 'shielding', despite no consultation with their doctors. (Guardian)

Tory MP Bob Seely, breaks lockdown to attend a BBQ with senior Brexit figures. Seely is responsible for leading the UK's track-and-trace trial on the Isle of Wight. (BBC News)

Arrivals to the UK will have to quarantine for two weeks or face a fine, the Government announces, nearly 4 months after the first UK cases. (Guardian)

(Mirror)

“Boris Johnson has trashed all the advice we have given on how to build trust and secure adherence to the measures necessary to control Covid-19,” says scientific adviser Professor Stephen Reicher. (Twitter)

Controversy engulfs Johnson's administration, as ministers double-down on their support for the Chief Adviser following his apparent breach of lockdown rules. Johnson says that Cummings did "what any father would have done". (Guardian)

A lack of protective gear and long waits for tests for NHS staff are preventing hospitals from dealing with backlogs of operations, a leading NHS figure warns. (Guardian)

Government double-counting of tests has masked the fact that the UK has never achieved more than 80,000 tests a day, despite setting a target of 100,000 daily tests on 2 April. (Times)

Asked by MPs if it will be compulsory for people to self-isolate at home if instructed to do so by contract tracers, the PM refuses to say yes, knowing that if he does he compromises his defence of Cummings. (Telegraph)

(Financial Times)

Top health experts and scientists warn the Prime Minister that trust in his government and its public health advice is shattered following chief adviser Dominic Cummings "failure to stand down or resign in the public interest." (Observer)

Public health officials make a plea to the government not to lift restrictions, fearing a spike in coronavirus cases. Measures such as allowing six people to meet outdoors and in private gardens, they state, are “not supported by the science” and should wait until more is known about the infection rate and a test-and-trace system is more fully established. (Guardian)

Following a weekend which saw throngs packing parks and beaches around the UK, two million children are expected to return to school and vulnerable individuals 'shielding' are advised that they can go outside as long as social distancing is maintained. At least one million of those children are kept at home amid fears of infection. (ITV News)

Demands for an inquiry mount as an official report shows that people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups are dying disproportionately because of the coronavirus. (Guardian)

Face masks will be made mandatory on all public transport in the UK, the Government announces, contradicting its advice from the end of April that the scientific case for wearing face covering is "extremely weak". (LBC)

It is revealed that the UK's flagship contact-tracing programme, launched with fanfare just a week ago, will not be fully up and running for months. (Guardian)

(ITV News)

The last meeting of the Cobra emergency committee took place on 10 May, when the Government adopted its controversial 'Stay Alert' message. Johnson is accused of abandoning the meetings following criticism in them. (Observer)

From mid-March to mid-April, 25,000 people were sent from hospitals to care homes without being tested for the coronavirus, a National Audit Office report reveals. (Telegraph)

Despite concerns over the UK's ability to navigate the Brexit transition in addition to the Covid-19 crisis, the Government confirms that it will not seek an extension to the transition period beyond 31 December 2020. (Politico)

Hundreds of thousands of Year 10 and Year 12 students also return to school. Law comes into force requiring facemasks on public transport and Government guidance allows 'bubbling' between two households. (Sky News)

Dismissing the app as "not the priority," Junior Health Minister Lord Bethell said "being too technological" runs the risk of "freaking people out." (Telegraph)

Almost three weeks since the launch of the UK's tracing programme, some contact tracers have not reached a single person. (New York Times)