'We were very close to collapse at times'

Five years on from the first Covid-19 lockdown announcement, Helena Vesty speaks to the decision-makers and the medics on the frontline about the crisis

- Helena Vesty

SIR Richard Leese helped bring the city through the IRA bomb, the Manchester Arena terror attack, and a pandemic.

Five years since the first lockdown he is among those able to speak more openly about the Covid period for the first time.

As coronavirus began to dominate every conversation, it dominated the region's hospitals even faster.

Sir Richard was the Manchester City Council leader in 2020, and had just taken on responsibility for health in the Greater Manchester Combined Authority as the virus took over.

"When Covid first started breaking out, nobody anywhere had a clue what they were doing.

"Whether it's national level or local level. This is not a criticism of anybody really," he remembers.

"This is something we had never experienced before and we've had an inquiry, we were clearly not prepared for an event of this sort.

"That's a reason a lot of mistakes were made early on." And in Greater Manchester hospitals, that came with frightening choices.

"Respiratory care, intensive care, oxygen - we were absolutely at times close to the edge," the former council leader told the Manchester Evening News.

"The meetings with colleagues from the council and the Manchester Royal Infirmary were really funny... but we were talking about how close the system was to collapse and what we could do about it," he said.

"It was that wartime, Battle of Britain, spirit. That did exist, we were able to laugh and joke even as things were all falling apart. They were the scariest meetings and the funniest meetings I've had." Meanwhile, medics were facing the 'fear and paranoia' that they were going to take the virus home to their families or become victims themselves.

With their anonymity protected, some told the M.E.N. the reality of being on the inside.