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An damning official inquiry concerning the UK's management of the coronavirus situation determined which the reaction were "inadequate and belated," noting that imposing confinement measures even seven days sooner could have saved more than 20,000 lives.

Primary Results from the Investigation

Detailed across more than seven hundred and fifty documents spanning two reports, the findings depict a consistent story showing hesitation, lack of action as well as an apparent incapacity to learn from experience.

The narrative about the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020 is particularly harsh, labeling the month of February as "a lost month."

Government Shortcomings Noted

• The report questions why the then prime minister did not to lead any gathering of the emergency crisis committee that month.
• Action to the virus effectively paused over the mid-term vacation.
• In the second week of that March, the situation had become "almost calamitous," due to inadequate preparation, no testing and therefore little understanding about how far Covid had circulated.

Potential Impact

Even though acknowledging that the choice to impose a lockdown had been historic as well as exceptionally hard, implementing further steps to slow the transmission of coronavirus more quickly could have meant such measures may not have been necessary, or have been of shorter duration.

When a lockdown became unavoidable, the report went on, if implemented imposed a week earlier, estimates showed this could have cut the number of deaths in England in the first wave of Covid by nearly 50%, representing over 20,000 fatalities avoided.

The failure to recognize the magnitude of the danger, and the urgency of response it required, led to that once the possibility of a mandatory lockdown was first considered it proved too late so that such measures had become unavoidable.

Recurring Errors

The report further pointed out that several similar mistakes – reacting too slowly and downplaying the pace together with consequences of Covid’s spread – were later repeated in the latter part of 2020, when measures were removed and then delayed restored in the face of infectious variants.

It labels such repetition "unjustifiable," adding how the government did not to improve during successive phases.

Total Impact

Britain suffered one of the deadliest Covid outbreaks within Europe, amounting to around 240,000 pandemic lives lost.

This investigation is the latest by the public inquiry covering every element of the handling and response to the coronavirus, that started in previous years and is due to continue until 2027.