First confirmed case of Covid-19 came to Milton Keynes in February, data reveals

Any by the time compulsory lockdown was announced on March 21, there had already been 32 laboratory-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the city.

One medic, who has asked not be be named, has criticised the authorities for not making the information more public at the time.

"I think everybody would have been more careful had they realised that Covid-19 was here in MK and spreading fast," he said.

The date of the first positive sample from MK was February 23. But the swab had been taken days earlier - and it is not known how long the person had been displaying symptoms before he or she was tested.

"My guess is that coronavirus was in Milton Keynes from the middle of February onwards," said the source.,

The first coronavirus fatality in MK was an 83-year-old gentleman who died in the hospital on March 5 after returning from a cruise in the Carribean.

The rest of the March saw numerous deaths at hospital and many more at care homes all over MK.

Official data says there were almost 150 confirmed Covid-19 cases in MK during March. But, with the testing facility yet to be built in the city, hundreds more may have been infected but went untested.

April was by far the worst month with 329 confirmed cases and up to four or five Covid-19 deaths a day at the hospital. Dozens more deaths at care homes were still going officially unrecorded.

May's figure dropped to 32 - despite the opening of the new CMK testing station that was carrying out dozens of swabs a day.

June, so far, has seen just three positive cases.

"MK is definitely over the worst - providing there is not a second wave," said the source. "But one wonders how different the figures for March and April might have been if the very early cases had been made more public at the time."