‘Bittersweet’: Covid report does not go far enough, say bereaved families

Petra Fleming, whose brother died of Covid: ‘Whatever we can do in the future to ensure this doesn’t happen again we will do.’ Photograph: Andy Hall/The Observer

Petra Fleming will turn 54 next year. That is not usually considered a milestone birthday but for her it carries huge emotional significance: it’s the age her brother was when he died of Covid during the pandemic.

“In terms of impact it really threw us into family trauma. You can’t hug each other, just FaceTime, it’s very unnatural, very surreal. It’s a very unique situation, which could have been completely avoided with more competent politicians. They failed spectacularly,” she said.