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An critical independent investigation regarding the United Kingdom's response of the Covid emergency has found which the reaction were "inadequate and belated," declaring that imposing restrictions even seven days sooner could have spared more than 23,000 lives.

Main Conclusions from the Investigation

Documented across more than seven hundred fifty sections covering two reports, the results depict a consistent picture of procrastination, inaction and an apparent inability to learn from experience.

The description regarding the onset of the pandemic at the beginning of 2020 has been described as especially harsh, describing February as "a wasted month."

Ministerial Errors Noted

• It raises questions about why the UK leader did not to chair a single session of the government's Cobra crisis committee that month.
• Action to the pandemic essentially paused over the half-term holiday week.
• By the second week of March, the situation was described as "little short of catastrophic," with a lack of plan, no testing and thus no understanding of the extent to which Covid had circulated.

What Could Have Been

While recognizing that the choice to enforce a lockdown had been unprecedented and hugely difficult, taking other action to slow the circulation of coronavirus more quickly could have meant such measures might have been avoided, or alternatively proved shorter.

When confinement was inevitable, the investigation noted, if it had been imposed on 16 March, projections showed that would have reduced the count of fatalities within England during the initial wave of the pandemic by nearly 50%, which equals over 20,000 fatalities avoided.

The failure to understand the magnitude of the risk, or the urgency for measures it demanded, led to the fact that once the option of enforced restrictions was first discussed it was already too delayed and restrictions had become necessary.

Ongoing Failures

The inquiry also noted that several similar mistakes – responding too slowly and underestimating the rate together with consequences of the pandemic's progression – were then repeated later in 2020, when controls were eased only to be belatedly restored due to contagious new strains.

It calls this "inexcusable," noting that the government failed to improve through repeated waves.

Final Count

The UK suffered one of the most severe pandemic outbreaks across Europe, with around 240 thousand Covid-related lives lost.

This investigation represents the second by the public review covering each part of the response as well as handling to the coronavirus, which began previously and is expected to proceed through 2027.