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An critical government inquiry concerning the United Kingdom's handling to the pandemic crisis has concluded which the response was "insufficient and delayed," stating that enacting restrictions only seven days before would have prevented over 23,000 deaths.

Main Conclusions from the Report

Documented through more than 750 documents across two parts, the conclusions portray an unmistakable story showing delay, failure to act and a seeming failure to learn lessons.

The description concerning the beginning of Covid-19 at the beginning of 2020 is notably harsh, describing the month of February as "a lost month."

Ministerial Errors Highlighted

• The report questions the reasons why the UK leader did not to convene a single session of the emergency response team in that period.
• Action to Covid largely halted during the half-term holiday week.
• In the second week in March, the situation was described as "nearly disastrous," due to no proper plan, insufficient testing and therefore no clear picture regarding the extent to which Covid was spreading.

Possible Outcome

Even though admitting that the move to impose confinement proved to be unprecedented and extremely challenging, enacting further steps to reduce the spread of coronavirus earlier might have resulted in a lockdown might have been avoided, or alternatively been of shorter duration.

When confinement was inevitable, the report noted, had it been enforced on March 16, estimates suggested that could have lowered the total of deaths in England in the earliest phase of the pandemic by around half, equating to over 20,000 deaths prevented.

The omission to recognize the extent of the risk, or the urgency for action it necessitated, resulted in the fact that when the option of compulsory confinement was initially contemplated it proved belated and restrictions were necessary.

Ongoing Failures

The investigation also pointed out how several of these mistakes – responding too slowly and minimizing the speed together with effect of the virus's transmission – occurred again in the latter part of 2020, as controls were removed and then late restored in the face of infectious mutations.

It calls this "unacceptable," adding that officials did not to absorb experience through successive phases.

Overall Toll

The United Kingdom suffered one of the deadliest coronavirus epidemics in Europe, recording around 240 thousand Covid-related lives lost.

The inquiry is the latest by the ongoing inquiry into each part of the management and handling to the coronavirus, which was launched two years ago and is expected to proceed into 2027.