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A harsh independent investigation concerning the UK's handling to the pandemic emergency has concluded that the actions were "insufficient and delayed," noting how implementing a lockdown only one week before could have prevented over 20,000 lives.

Primary Results of the Report

Detailed in over seven hundred fifty sections across two reports, the findings paint a consistent story showing procrastination, lack of action and an evident failure to understand from mistakes.

The narrative regarding the beginning of the pandemic at the beginning of 2020 is notably harsh, describing the month of February as being "a lost month."

Official Shortcomings Highlighted

• It questions why the UK leader failed to lead any gathering of the Cobra crisis committee that month.
• Action to the virus essentially stopped during the mid-term vacation.
• By the second week of March, the circumstances was described as "little short of catastrophic," with inadequate plan, no testing and therefore no clear picture regarding how far the virus had circulated.

What Could Have Been

Although admitting that the decision to impose a lockdown proved to be unprecedented as well as extremely challenging, taking further steps to reduce the transmission of Covid sooner could have meant a lockdown might have been avoided, or have been less lengthy.

When restrictions became unavoidable, the inquiry authors stated, if implemented introduced on March 16, projections suggested this might have cut the number of deaths across England in the earliest phase of Covid by nearly 50%, representing over 20,000 fatalities avoided.

The omission to understand the scale of the threat, and the need for action it demanded, led to the fact that by the time the possibility of compulsory confinement was initially contemplated it was already too delayed and a lockdown became inevitable.

Repeated Mistakes

The inquiry additionally highlighted that a number of of the same failures – responding too slowly and underestimating the speed together with impact of Covid’s spread – occurred again subsequently in 2020, when controls were lifted and then delayed reimposed because of spreading new strains.

The report describes such repetition "unacceptable," stating that those in charge did not to improve during successive waves.

Overall Toll

Britain endured among the worst coronavirus epidemics within Europe, amounting to around 240,000 virus-related lives lost.

The inquiry represents the second from the national review covering all aspects of the handling as well as management to Covid, that was launched in previous years and is due to run until 2027.