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A damning independent report into the United Kingdom's management of the coronavirus emergency has found which the actions were "too little, too late," declaring how enacting restrictions only seven days before would have saved in excess of 20,000 lives.

Key Findings from the Inquiry

Documented through over seven hundred and fifty pages covering two volumes, the conclusions depict a clear story of hesitation, inaction and a seeming incapacity to learn from mistakes.

The description concerning the start of the coronavirus in early 2020 is especially harsh, labeling February as being "a month of inaction."

Official Errors Noted

• It questions why the UK leader neglected to convene any session of the emergency response team that month.
• Action to the pandemic essentially halted over the school break.
• In the second week in March, the state of affairs was "almost calamitous," with no proper plan, no testing and therefore no understanding of the degree to which Covid had circulated.

Possible Outcome

While admitting the fact that the choice to enforce restrictions had been without precedent as well as extremely challenging, implementing additional measures to curb the circulation of coronavirus more quickly could have meant a lockdown could have been prevented, or alternatively proved shorter.

Once restrictions became unavoidable, the investigation noted, if implemented enforced a week earlier, modelling suggested this could have lowered the total of fatalities in England in the first wave of Covid by almost half, equating to 23,000 lives saved.

The inability to understand the scale of the risk, or the need for measures it required, led to the fact that once the option of enforced restrictions was first considered it proved belated so that restrictions became unavoidable.

Ongoing Failures

The investigation also highlighted how a number of similar mistakes – responding belatedly and downplaying the speed and effect of the pandemic's progression – occurred again in the latter part of 2020, when restrictions were eased and subsequently late restored because of infectious mutations.

The report describes this "inexcusable," stating that the government failed to improve over successive outbreaks.

Overall Toll

The United Kingdom suffered among the worst pandemic outbreaks in Europe, recording about 240,000 virus-related deaths.

The inquiry represents the latest by the public investigation regarding each part of the response as well as handling to the coronavirus, that was launched two years ago and is due to continue into 2027.