SIR – Dame Esther Rantzen (Letters, February 17) writes that Britain has a high Covid-19 mortality rate due to its past reluctance to lock down. The Oxford Government Response Tracker, which compares policy responses to Covid-19 around the world, shows that Britain has imposed strict restrictions for longer than any other country in Europe during the pandemic, with the possible exceptions of Ireland and Portugal, and longer than almost all Asian countries. Dame Esther then singles out Japan as a relatively successful country during the pandemic. Yet Japan’s restrictions have been much lighter than Britain’s. So it does not, perhaps, offer the best argument for lockdowns.