Give credit where it's due in the coronavirus fight

WE have made real progress in tackling the deadly Covid19 virus, the terrible daily toll continues to fall, we are beginning to reconnect with friends and family, pupils are returning to schools and businesses are slowly re-opening.

- Sir Robbie Gibb

We have emerged from the first phase of the battle having succeeded in the overall aim – to prevent our hospitals from being overwhelmed and avoid the heart-breaking scenes we witnessed in Italian hospitals.

But to listen to some broadcasters or see some newspapers, you could be forgiven for thinking all other nations have risen to this unprecedented challenge while we alone have lurched from failure to failure.

Our media seems more determined to point the finger of blame than establish facts that offer the country real insight and perspective in these times of great uncertainty.

And when comparative data is used it is all too often selected to show Britain in the worst light rather than a fair light.

This is a novel virus, a threat of a scale and pace the world has not seen for generations. All countries have sometimes struggled to stay ahead of this terrible disease.

EVEN a cursory comparison with our European neighbours reveals a pattern of similar challenges to those seen in Britain. In France more than 1.6 billion face masks were incinerated before the virus hit to create more storage space, while in Spain faulty masks issued to frontline health workers forced more than 1,000 into isolation and thousands more required testing.