A preparedness exercise from 2016 to deal with a possible outbreak of a coronavirus in the United Kingdom warned of the need for adequate stocks of personal protective equipment, an automated case monitoring system and case tracking from outside.
The hitherto unknown exercise is revealed by the Guardian newspaper, which was approached by Dr. Dr Musa Kiuresi after gaining access to the findings of the relevant report under the Freedom of Information Act.
The exercise was ordered by then-England chief physician Dame Sally Davis. Officials from the NHS National Health Administration, the Department of Health, the Public Health Agency of England and observers from the decentralized governments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland participated.
The 23-page final report highlighted shortcomings in the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) 's "large - scale" outbreak, shortcomings that were indeed revealed in the current pandemic.
According to the Guardian, ignoring the report of the so-called "Exercise Alice" will intensify questions about the government's inadequate preparation and delayed response to the pandemic.
So far, the findings of Exercise Swan, also of 2016, which pointed out similar shortcomings, but for the case of a flu pandemic and not a coronavirus, have been known, something that the British government has used as an excuse for not implementing the report's recommendations.
Now, however, it is being revealed that there were clear warnings of problems in the event of a coronavirus outbreak, with Dr. Kiuresi stating that "in a shameful way, the government has hidden Exercise Alice".