🔗 Share this article Lockdown a Week Before Could Have Saved Over 20,000 Fatalities, Covid Investigation Concludes An damning government investigation regarding the United Kingdom's response of the Covid crisis determined that the actions were "inadequate and belated," stating how implementing restrictions just seven days sooner could have spared more than 23,000 lives. Key Findings from the Investigation Detailed through exceeding seven hundred fifty documents covering two parts, the conclusions paint an unmistakable picture of hesitation, inaction and a seeming failure to learn from mistakes. The narrative concerning the beginning of the pandemic in the first months of 2020 has been described as particularly brutal, describing February as being "a lost month." Government Shortcomings Emphasized The report questions the reasons why the UK leader failed to chair one meeting of the government's Cobra emergency committee in that period. Measures to Covid effectively halted during the school break. In the second week in March, the state of affairs was described as "nearly disastrous," due to no proper preparation, a lack of testing and therefore no understanding about the degree to which the virus had circulated. What Could Have Been Although recognizing that the move to impose restrictions had been without precedent and hugely difficult, taking additional measures to curb the circulation of the virus more quickly would have allowed such measures could have been prevented, or been shorter. By the time confinement became unavoidable, the report went on, had it been imposed a week earlier, estimates showed that would have cut the count of deaths across England during the initial wave of the virus by nearly 50%, which equals over 20,000 lives saved. The failure to recognize the magnitude of the risk, or the need for action it necessitated, led to that by the time the chance of a mandatory lockdown was first discussed it had become too late and a lockdown had become inevitable. Ongoing Failures The inquiry additionally noted how several of these failures – responding too slowly as well as minimizing the speed and consequences of the virus's transmission – occurred again later in 2020, when restrictions were removed and subsequently delayed restored because of infectious new strains. It labels such repetition "inexcusable," noting how the government failed to improve over successive phases. Total Impact The UK suffered one of the most severe Covid outbreaks in Europe, with about two hundred forty thousand pandemic fatalities. The inquiry represents another by the ongoing inquiry regarding all aspects of the management and response to Covid, which started two years ago and is scheduled to run through 2027.