ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

The Government was warned last year that it needed to plan for a potentially lethal pandemic, according to a leaked memo.

The document, seen by the Guardian, reportedly set out urgent “capability requirements” that ministers needed to draw up to prevent tens of thousands of lives being lost.

According to the paper, the 600-page 2019 National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA) - marked “official, sensitive” - was approved by the Government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and an unnamed national security adviser to the Prime Minister.

It comes as the UK’s hospital coronavirus death toll nears the grim milestone of 20,000, which medical chiefs warned last month the country would “have done very well” to stay below.

The Cabinet office document reportedly urged ministers to stockpile vital personal protective equipment (PPE), set up advanced purchase orders for other essential items, establish contact tracing procedures and plan to repatriate Brits stuck abroad.

Number 10 has faced a barrage of criticism for being too slow to act on the crisis amid continued PPE shortfalls on the NHS frontline, a troubled testing programme, no lockdown exit strategy and unrecorded care home deaths.

Two doctors are currently suing the Government over PPE guidelines that they say fails to protect them. More than 70 healthcare workers have died after contracting Covid-19.

The memo also warned ministers of a coronavirus outbreak similar to Sars, adding: “Pandemics significantly more serious than the reasonable worst case… are possible.”

It warned a pandemic would play out in up to “three waves”, each week lasting 15 weeks with peaks at six and seven weeks during each wave.

It added that a pandemic influenza would see 50 per cent of the population infected, a possible 65,000 deaths, an economic hit of £2.35tn, prolonged damage to the health and social care system and public outrage over the Government’s response.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, said the revelations were “alarming… and raised serious questions about the government’s planning and preparedness for a coronavirus-style pandemic," calling on her counterpart Michael Gove to make a statement to MPs on Monday.

A Number 10 spokesperson said the Government had been “proactive” in its preparations, adding: “This is an unprecedented global pandemic and we have taken the right steps at the right time to combat it, guided at all times by the best scientific advice.”