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A critical government inquiry regarding the UK's handling of the pandemic situation determined which the reaction were "too little, too late," declaring how implementing confinement measures just one week before might have spared more than 23,000 fatalities.

Key Findings of the Investigation

Outlined across over 750 pages across two volumes, the results portray an unmistakable picture showing procrastination, inaction and an apparent incapacity to absorb lessons.

The account about the beginning of the pandemic at the beginning of 2020 is notably brutal, describing February as "a month of inaction."

Official Shortcomings Noted

• It questions why Boris Johnson failed to chair any meeting of the government's Cobra crisis committee in that period.
• Measures to the pandemic largely paused over the school break.
• During the second week in March, the circumstances was "nearly disastrous," due to no proper plan, a lack of testing and consequently no clear picture of the degree to which Covid had spread.

Potential Impact

Although acknowledging that the move to implement restrictions had been without precedent and hugely difficult, enacting other action to slow the circulation of coronavirus earlier would have allowed such measures might have been avoided, or at least have been shorter.

By the time a lockdown was necessary, the report noted, if implemented introduced on March 16, estimates suggested that could have reduced the number of lives lost in England in the earliest phase of the virus by nearly 50%, representing over 20,000 deaths prevented.

The failure to understand the magnitude of the threat, or the urgency for measures it required, resulted in that by the time the chance of enforced restrictions was first considered it had become too delayed so that a lockdown had become inevitable.

Repeated Mistakes

The investigation additionally pointed out how many of the same mistakes – reacting belatedly and underestimating the rate and effect of Covid’s spread – were then repeated subsequently in 2020, when restrictions were lifted only to be belatedly restored due to contagious new strains.

The report calls such repetition "unacceptable," stating that officials were unable to learn lessons through repeated waves.

Overall Toll

The UK endured one of the worst pandemic epidemics across Europe, amounting to approximately 240 thousand Covid-related fatalities.

This report is another by the public review into all aspects of the response and handling to Covid, which was launched two years ago and is expected to proceed through 2027.