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A harsh official investigation into the UK's management to the pandemic crisis has concluded which the response were "too little, too late," declaring how implementing restrictions only a single week sooner could have saved more than twenty thousand fatalities.

Key Findings from the Report

Documented in over 750 sections across two volumes, the results paint an unmistakable narrative showing procrastination, lack of action and a seeming incapacity to absorb lessons.

The description about the onset of Covid-19 in early 2020 is notably critical, labeling the month of February as being "a month of inaction."

Government Failures Noted

• It questions the reasons why Boris Johnson neglected to chair a single meeting of the emergency response team that month.
• Measures to the virus largely halted during the half-term holiday week.
• During the second week of that March, the circumstances was described as "nearly calamitous," due to no proper preparation, a lack of testing and therefore no clear picture regarding the degree to which the virus had spread.

Potential Impact

While acknowledging that the move to impose restrictions proved to be historic as well as extremely challenging, taking other action to reduce the transmission of Covid sooner would have allowed such measures could have been prevented, or been of shorter duration.

By the time a lockdown was necessary, the inquiry authors stated, had it been imposed a week earlier, estimates indicated this would have cut the total of lives lost across England during the initial wave of the virus by nearly 50%, which equals 23,000 deaths prevented.

The omission to understand the extent of the risk, or the need for measures it required, meant the fact that by the time the chance of enforced restrictions was initially contemplated it proved belated and restrictions became unavoidable.

Ongoing Failures

The inquiry also noted how a number of similar errors – responding belatedly and underestimating the pace and impact of the pandemic's progression – occurred again subsequently in 2020, when controls were eased only to be delayed restored due to spreading new strains.

It labels this "inexcusable," noting that the government were unable to improve over repeated outbreaks.

Total Impact

The UK experienced one of the worst coronavirus crises in Europe, amounting to about 240,000 virus-related fatalities.

The inquiry is another by the ongoing review into each part of the handling as well as handling of the pandemic, that began in previous years and is due to proceed until 2027.