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An damning official investigation concerning Britain's response of the Covid crisis determined that the response were "insufficient and delayed," stating how imposing restrictions just a single week earlier would have saved over twenty thousand fatalities.

Primary Results from the Report

Detailed in over seven hundred and fifty pages covering two volumes, the results paint a clear narrative showing hesitation, lack of action and an apparent failure to absorb from mistakes.

The account about the beginning of the coronavirus in the first months of 2020 has been described as notably brutal, describing the month of February as being "a lost month."

Government Shortcomings Emphasized

• It questions why the then prime minister did not to convene any gathering of the government's Cobra crisis committee that month.
• The response to the pandemic essentially halted during the half-term holiday week.
• By the second week of that March, the state of affairs was "nearly disastrous," with a lack of preparation, no testing and thus no clear picture of the extent to which Covid had circulated.

What Could Have Been

Although recognizing the fact that the choice to enforce a lockdown proved to be historic and extremely challenging, implementing additional measures to reduce the transmission of the virus sooner would have allowed that one may not have been necessary, or have been less lengthy.

When confinement was necessary, the report noted, if implemented enforced on March 16, estimates indicated this could have cut the number of fatalities in England in the first wave of the virus by almost half, representing 23,000 fatalities avoided.

The inability to appreciate the extent of the risk, and the immediacy for action it necessitated, meant that by the time the possibility of compulsory confinement was first discussed it was already too delayed so that such measures became unavoidable.

Ongoing Failures

The report also highlighted that a number of of the same errors – reacting too slowly and minimizing the pace and consequences of the virus's transmission – were later repeated subsequently in 2020, as measures were eased and then late restored because of contagious new strains.

The report labels this "unacceptable," adding that the government did not to learn lessons through successive waves.

Overall Toll

The UK experienced one of the worst coronavirus crises in Europe, with about two hundred forty thousand pandemic deaths.

This investigation represents another by the national investigation into all aspects of the response as well as management to the coronavirus, which began two years ago and is due to run through 2027.