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An harsh independent investigation regarding Britain's response of the coronavirus emergency has found which the reaction was "inadequate and belated," stating that enacting restrictions just seven days before would have prevented over 23,000 lives.

Key Findings from the Investigation

Documented across exceeding seven hundred and fifty sections across two parts, the results depict a consistent picture of hesitation, inaction and a seeming failure to understand from mistakes.

The narrative about the onset of the coronavirus in the first months of 2020 is especially brutal, labeling the month of February as "a month of inaction."

Official Failures Highlighted

• The report questions the reasons why the then prime minister failed to chair one session of the Cobra emergency committee during February.
• Action to the virus largely stopped over the half-term holiday week.
• By the second week in March, the state of affairs had become "little short of calamitous," due to inadequate plan, no testing and therefore no understanding regarding how far the coronavirus had spread.

Possible Outcome

Although recognizing that the decision to implement restrictions was historic as well as exceptionally hard, enacting further steps to reduce the circulation of the virus sooner would have allowed a lockdown may not have been necessary, or alternatively proved less lengthy.

Once a lockdown was inevitable, the report stated, had it been imposed a week earlier, estimates showed that might have lowered the count of fatalities across England in the earliest phase of Covid by almost half, representing 23,000 fatalities avoided.

The omission to appreciate the scale of the danger, and the urgency for measures it necessitated, meant that when the possibility of a mandatory lockdown was first discussed it proved belated so that a lockdown became inevitable.

Repeated Mistakes

The inquiry further noted that several of these mistakes – reacting belatedly and downplaying the speed and impact of the pandemic's progression – were then repeated subsequently in 2020, as measures were lifted and subsequently belatedly reintroduced because of contagious new strains.

The report describes this "unacceptable," adding that officials were unable to improve during multiple outbreaks.

Total Impact

Britain endured among the deadliest coronavirus crises in Europe, with around 240,000 Covid-related fatalities.

This investigation is the latest by the public investigation into all aspects of the handling and management to the coronavirus, that was launched in previous years and is expected to run until 2027.