Coronavirus: Here's what Portsmouth people think about the government's handling of the pandemic

The crisis has so far seen 177,454* cases confirmed in the UK and, tragically, 27,510* deaths across all settings.

In Portsmouth, 189* people who tested positive for Covid-19 have died at Queen Alexandra Hospital.

Meanwhile there have been 20* confirmed deaths involving Covid-19 in city care homes, up to April 25.

Yesterday, we asked our readers whether they think the government has handled the pandemic in the best way possible.

They made more than 200 comments after Mr Johnson led the nation’s daily coronavirus press conference for the first time since recovering from the disease himself.

Here’s what our readers said – along with a handy timeline tracking coronavirus in the UK and some of the government’s response to it.

FOR – the government has handled the coronavirus pandemic in the best way possible:

:: Leslie Harris: ‘The government had to follow the medical and scientific advice they were given, if that proves to be at fault then the blame rests with those people. I think whatever a government does it can't please everyone.’

:: Avril Hill: ‘Think all that could be done has been. It’s hard enough with day-to-day living, but when something like this happens it makes you rethink life.’

:: Angie Sillince: ‘The government are doing all they can to slow down this pandemic and save lives. They should have the country behind them, not slagging them off every day. The fact that people are ignoring the advice given is partly to blame for high number of deaths. We haven’t had anything like this in my lifetime and hindsight is a wonderful thing.’

:: Peter Helsby: ‘The government have done a good job in extreme and unknown circumstances. They may have got one or two things wrong in hindsight but considering the top health bods were telling us to expect many more deaths – the figure of 200,000 was mentioned and expected at one stage – l think they have handled the situation well. To give us a furlough situation was never envisaged by anyone too.’

:: Rosie Earwicker: ‘Put it this way. If we were all given a choice – a thriving economy, or your families’ lives – what would you want? Health before wealth every time in my book. Lockdown for as long as it takes.’

:: Julie Mitchell: ‘The furlough scheme, people still getting paid, was a brilliant decision compared to America where this does not exist and everyone is now on job seeker’s… Was a good decision in all of this by the government.’

:: Joe Parsons: ‘No, I'm sure they are doing their best now – but if they knew it was coming and they did then they should if started lockdown procedures early.’

:: Louise McGee: ‘Great job, considering all the circumstances.’

:: Alan Priddy: ‘There are no monuments in the names of critics. It is easy to give criticism after an event has happened. Having to deal with a load of unknowns is the worst of the worst situations possible. HMG have done a good job in an impossible situation.’

:: Jacqui Horobin: ‘Rightly or wrongly they have done everything with the country's best interest at heart. No one knew at the time or knows now the ‘perfect’ way to handle it. They can only do their best and they have. Totally support Boris.’

:: Liz Summerfield: ‘I think they have done a good job considering they didn't expect all of this to happen, like none of us did.’

AGAINST – the government has not handled the coronavirus pandemic in the best way possible:

:: Andrew Bloomfield: ‘We’ve got the third highest death rate, how are we doing the best we can? We had weeks to prepare and done nothing.’

:: Peter Young: ‘I flew in from Saudi Arabia last Friday. No checks of any kind at the airport. I'm self-isolating. Amazing with the passport technology. The country should, in my opinion, have locked down sooner.’

:: Sallyann Pocklington: ‘No, I believe they should have locked down sooner like New Zealand.’

:: Matt Carter: ‘They started off ok by locking down when it seemed to be the right thing to do, but now they are failing to give any sort of plan to end it, meaning prolonged removal of civil liberties. Time to get back to work and stop the economic crash which will claim more lives than the virus ever will.’

:: Denise Coble: ‘How can anyone criticise the government. Fabulous idea to let the Cheltenham Gold Cup go ahead, round it off with inviting 2,000+ Madrid footie fans over for a match in Liverpool, then decide to go against scientific/medical advice and go for a policy of 'herd immunity' rather than locking down the country. Only do you lock down the country once it looks like we might have the highest death rate in Europe (which we may anyway). Then despite the fact that they had weeks of warning as other countries were ahead of us, do you use that time to make sure you have enough PPE? No of course not. All I can say is well done Boris. Do may sure you've got your sarcasm filter switched on before you read this.’

:: Alan White: ‘I think it’s a joke personally. Stay home unless you need to go out. Don’t work unless you need to work. You can’t go out unless for exercise, as long as it’s not for too long. Make use of your time by doing your house up, maybe paint your kitchen, but we'll fine you for going to get paint. Do what we say even though we don’t really know what we’re talking about. It’s probably been the most open lockdown in history.’

:: Storm Heart: ‘I think we could have locked down a bit sooner and taken it more serious from the beginning.’

:: Jeremy Whiting: ‘Early action was the key. The government shut the stable door after the horse bolted. Whatever the government do now, [they] cannot make up for this. As for the economy, there will be masses of losers for sure, but who are the winners? Not many for sure. Seeing as nowhere abroad will be better off than us, we should seek practical solutions to fix the economy. After all, money is entirely man made.’

:: Jadzia Weedon: ‘Some people will defend the government, other's won't. My own view is that we all knew it was coming. We should have been better prepared. I hear how well South Korea handled it – that was back in January – we could have looked at their good example. As it is, we have a really high death toll. Lessons have been learnt the hard way.’

:: Pam Thomson: ‘They didn't lock down early enough. Ending lock down too early could be a big mistake.’

:: Árón Ó Náraigh: ‘The UK response has been globally recognised as shambolic. Boris is frequently mentioned alongside Trump when discussing leaders who have completely failed to handle this pandemic. It completely baffles me how anyone could think the UK government have done a good job. If this is what is considered success I dread to think what failure would look like.’

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