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A harsh independent report into Britain's handling to the coronavirus situation has found that the reaction was "insufficient and delayed," noting how imposing a lockdown even seven days sooner would have prevented over twenty thousand fatalities.

Primary Results from the Investigation

Documented through more than 750 documents covering two parts, the conclusions portray a clear picture of hesitation, inaction and an apparent incapacity to absorb from mistakes.

The account about the onset of the pandemic in the first months of 2020 has been described as especially harsh, labeling the month of February as "a lost month."

Ministerial Errors Emphasized

• It raises questions about why the then prime minister failed to convene a single gathering of the emergency response team that month.
• Action to Covid effectively paused during the mid-term vacation.
• During the second week of that March, the state of affairs was described as "little short of calamitous," with no proper strategy, insufficient testing and consequently no clear picture of how far the virus was spreading.

Possible Outcome

Even though admitting the fact that the decision to impose restrictions was without precedent and exceptionally hard, enacting other action to slow the circulation of the virus sooner might have resulted in a lockdown could have been prevented, or at least have been of shorter duration.

Once restrictions was inevitable, the investigation noted, if implemented enforced on 16 March, modelling suggested this could have reduced the number of fatalities in England in the earliest phase of the virus by almost half, representing over 20,000 lives saved.

The omission to recognize the scale of the threat, or the immediacy of response it demanded, led to that once the chance of enforced restrictions was first discussed it was already too delayed so that such measures became unavoidable.

Repeated Mistakes

The investigation further highlighted that a number of similar mistakes – responding with delay and underestimating the speed together with impact of the pandemic's progression – occurred again subsequently in 2020, as restrictions were eased and subsequently late reimposed because of spreading variants.

The report describes this "unacceptable," noting how officials did not to improve over repeated waves.

Final Count

Britain experienced one of the most severe Covid crises across Europe, recording approximately two hundred forty thousand pandemic deaths.

The inquiry represents the second by the ongoing review into every element of the management and response to Covid, that began in previous years and is scheduled to run until 2027.