‘Bittersweet’ Bereaved families’ cool welcome for Covid report

Relatives relieved at inquiry's damning analysis ofa lack of preparedeness but believe many issues not addressed

- Rachel Hall

Petra Fleming will turn 54 next year. That is not usually considered a milestone birthday but for her it carries huge emotional significance: it's the age her brother was when he died of Covid during the pandemic.

"In terms of impact, it really threw us into family trauma. You can't hug each other, just FaceTime, it's very unnatural, very surreal. It's a very unique situation, which could have been completely avoided with more competent politicians. They failed spectacularly," she said.

Sharing her story at the publication of the first report from the UK Covid-19 inquiry, she underlined its importance: "I hope other people don't have to go through the same thing that myself and my family went through.

Whatever we can do in the future to ensure this doesn't happen again we will do." Fleming is a member of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK and, like many others, she has mixed feelings about the report's content.