Luton people share experiences of pandemic with Covid-19 Inquiry

In 2020, the world was plunged into uncertainty and the UK went into lockdown as cases of coronavirus spread. Four years on, and an independent inquiry is looking into how the country had prepared for the pandemic and how it responded to the waves of cases.

As part of its investigation, UK Covid-19 Inquiry came to Luton to get a sense of how people in the town were affected by the pandemic.

Laura Kenny, head of external affairs at the inquiry, said: “We know that the pandemic affected people in different places differently. So we're coming to towns and cities across the country over the next nine months to hear people's experiences.

“We want to hear from as many different people from different backgrounds. Luton has got a diverse population, it's got a very young population. So that's why we're here, to hear from as many people as possible.”

Carers, bereaved families and those living with long Covid shared how coronavirus and lockdowns had impacted them.

Laura explained: “We know hundreds of thousands of people have lost loved ones. And many more than that became ill or suffered hardship. We've heard from people with long Covid who are still suffering the impact of the pandemic and still living with it. We've also heard from people that were carers.”

After travelling across the UK to get thousands of perspectives, the Inquiry’s chair, Baroness Heather Hallett, will make recommendations to the Government about what to do to prepare for the next pandemic.

Laura thanked those in Luton for attending the session: “We recognize that it's really painful for some people to come and kind of share their stories and that it can be quite a painful time to go back to so I personally feel very grateful for the people that have come along today that they that they trust us with their experiences.”

Those who were unable to attend the sessions in person are asked to click here to share their experiences with the Inquiry.