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An damning independent report concerning Britain's management to the Covid crisis has found that the response was "insufficient and delayed," declaring how enacting a lockdown only a single week earlier might have saved more than 23,000 lives.

Main Conclusions of the Report

Detailed in exceeding 750 sections spanning two parts, the findings depict a consistent story of delay, inaction and a seeming incapacity to absorb lessons.

The description about the beginning of the coronavirus in early 2020 is notably brutal, describing the month of February as being "a lost month."

Ministerial Failures Highlighted

• It questions the reasons why the UK leader did not to chair a single gathering of the emergency crisis committee that month.
• The response to the virus largely stopped during the mid-term vacation.
• During the second week of March, the situation had become "nearly calamitous," with inadequate preparation, insufficient testing and thus little understanding of the degree to which Covid had circulated.

What Could Have Been

Even though acknowledging that the decision to impose restrictions proved to be without precedent as well as hugely difficult, implementing additional measures to curb the transmission of the virus more quickly could have meant a lockdown could have been prevented, or have been less lengthy.

By the time restrictions became unavoidable, the report stated, had it been enforced on March 16, modelling showed this would have reduced the count of fatalities in England during the initial wave of the pandemic by nearly 50%, which equals twenty-three thousand lives saved.

The omission to appreciate the magnitude of the risk, and the need of response it demanded, meant that once the possibility of enforced restrictions was first considered it had become too delayed and restrictions had become necessary.

Ongoing Failures

The investigation also noted that many of the same mistakes – responding belatedly as well as downplaying the speed and consequences of the virus's transmission – occurred again later in 2020, when controls were eased only to be belatedly reintroduced in the face of infectious mutations.

The report calls this "unacceptable," noting that those in charge did not to improve through repeated phases.

Total Impact

Britain suffered one of the most severe pandemic epidemics within Europe, with about 240,000 virus-related fatalities.

This investigation is the latest from the national review regarding each part of the management as well as management to the coronavirus, that was launched previously and is due to continue until 2027.