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An harsh government inquiry regarding the UK's handling to the coronavirus crisis has concluded which the actions was "insufficient and delayed," stating that enacting a lockdown just seven days sooner could have spared in excess of 20,000 lives.

Primary Results of the Report

Detailed in more than 750 documents spanning two reports, the results paint an unmistakable picture of delay, lack of action as well as a seeming failure to learn from experience.

The narrative about the start of the pandemic in the first months of 2020 is particularly critical, labeling the month of February as "a month of inaction."

Ministerial Failures Noted

• It questions why Boris Johnson neglected to convene any session of the emergency response team in that period.
• Measures to Covid essentially halted over the school break.
• During the second week of that March, the state of affairs was described as "little short of calamitous," due to inadequate preparation, insufficient testing and therefore little understanding regarding the degree to which Covid had spread.

Possible Outcome

While admitting the fact that the decision to implement a lockdown proved to be without precedent as well as exceptionally hard, taking other action to reduce the circulation of Covid sooner would have allowed a lockdown might have been avoided, or at least have been less lengthy.

When a lockdown was inevitable, the report stated, had it been imposed on March 16, modelling showed this could have lowered the total of lives lost in England during the initial wave of the pandemic by around half, representing over 20,000 deaths prevented.

The omission to appreciate the magnitude of the risk, or the urgency for measures it necessitated, meant that by the time the chance of enforced restrictions was initially contemplated it had become belated and a lockdown were necessary.

Repeated Mistakes

The investigation further noted how many similar errors – reacting belatedly and downplaying the rate together with impact of the virus's transmission – occurred again in the latter part of 2020, when controls were removed and then delayed reimposed in the face of infectious variants.

It describes such repetition "unjustifiable," adding how those in charge failed to improve over successive outbreaks.

Overall Toll

The UK experienced one of the deadliest coronavirus crises within Europe, recording around two hundred forty thousand virus-related fatalities.

The inquiry represents the second by the national review into each part of the handling and handling to the coronavirus, that started two years ago and is due to run into 2027.