🔗 Share this article Lockdown One Week Earlier Could Have Saved 23,000 Deaths, Covid Report Determines An critical official report into the UK's handling of the coronavirus emergency determined that the actions was "insufficient and delayed," noting how imposing confinement measures just seven days earlier might have spared more than 20,000 lives. Main Conclusions from the Report Outlined in over 750 pages spanning two parts, the findings depict a clear narrative of delay, failure to act as well as an evident failure to learn from experience. The account regarding the beginning of the coronavirus in early 2020 is especially harsh, calling the month of February as being "a month of inaction." Government Failures Emphasized It questions why Boris Johnson did not to convene one gathering of the emergency response team that month. Measures to the pandemic effectively stopped during the school break. By the second week in March, the circumstances was "nearly catastrophic," with no proper strategy, a lack of testing and consequently little understanding about how far the coronavirus had circulated. Possible Outcome Although recognizing the fact that the choice to impose a lockdown was without precedent and hugely difficult, enacting other action to reduce the circulation of coronavirus earlier could have meant such measures might have been avoided, or alternatively proved of shorter duration. Once confinement was necessary, the report stated, had it been imposed on March 16, modelling indicated this would have reduced the number of lives lost within England in the first wave of the virus by around half, which equals twenty-three thousand fatalities avoided. The inability to appreciate the extent of the risk, and the immediacy for action it necessitated, resulted in the fact that once the possibility of a mandatory lockdown was first discussed it proved belated so that a lockdown were inevitable. Ongoing Failures The investigation further noted how several similar errors – reacting too slowly and downplaying the speed together with impact of the pandemic's progression – were later repeated later in 2020, when restrictions were eased only to be delayed reimposed in the face of infectious mutations. It labels such repetition "inexcusable," noting that those in charge were unable to improve over multiple waves. Total Impact The UK endured one of the worst Covid crises in Europe, recording approximately two hundred forty thousand virus-related fatalities. The inquiry represents another by the public review into each part of the handling as well as handling to Covid, that was launched two years ago and is scheduled to run through 2027.