Into the fog: How Britain lost track of the coronavirus

A pedestrian wearing PPE (personal protective equipment), including a face mask as a precautionary measure against Covid-19, walks across London Bridge, near Tower Bridge, in London on May 13, 2020. - AFP

LONDON (Reuters): On Friday, Feb 21, Duncan Selbie, chief executive of Public Health England, was in a cheerful mood. It was near the end of the school half-term holiday.

He wrote on an official blog that there had been no new positive cases of the new coronavirus that week in the United Kingdom. It was a "testament," he said,"to the robust infection control measures" and the "diagnostic and testing work" at laboratories nationwide.