🔗 Share this article Restrictions a Week Sooner Would Have Saved 23,000 Lives, Covid Report Determines A damning government investigation into the United Kingdom's response to the Covid crisis has found that the reaction were "inadequate and belated," noting that enacting restrictions even one week sooner could have prevented over 20,000 lives. Key Findings of the Investigation Detailed in exceeding seven hundred fifty sections spanning two parts, the findings portray a clear narrative showing delay, lack of action as well as a seeming incapacity to absorb from mistakes. The narrative regarding the onset of Covid-19 at the beginning of 2020 is portrayed as notably critical, labeling the month of February as being "a wasted month." Ministerial Errors Noted It raises questions about the reasons why the then prime minister failed to convene one gathering of the government's Cobra emergency committee in that period. Action to the virus effectively halted over the school break. In the second week in March, the state of affairs had become "little short of catastrophic," due to a lack of preparation, insufficient testing and consequently no clear picture of how far Covid was spreading. Potential Impact While recognizing that the choice to impose restrictions proved to be without precedent and extremely challenging, taking other action to curb the spread of coronavirus more quickly could have meant such measures could have been prevented, or at least been shorter. By the time confinement was inevitable, the report went on, had it been introduced on March 16, modelling suggested this might have cut the number of deaths in England in the earliest phase of the virus by around half, which equals over 20,000 deaths prevented. The inability to appreciate the extent of the risk, and the urgency for measures it required, resulted in the fact that by the time the option of enforced restrictions was initially contemplated it proved too late and restrictions had become inevitable. Ongoing Failures The report further pointed out how several similar errors – responding too slowly and minimizing the speed and effect of the pandemic's progression – occurred again in the latter part of 2020, as restrictions were removed and subsequently delayed reintroduced because of infectious new strains. It describes such repetition "unjustifiable," noting how those in charge did not to improve through repeated waves. Overall Toll Britain endured among the most severe pandemic epidemics across Europe, amounting to approximately 240 thousand pandemic fatalities. This investigation constitutes the latest by the ongoing review into all aspects of the handling and response of the pandemic, which started two years ago and is due to proceed into 2027.