UK Covid Inquiry Says Thousands Of Lives Could Have Been Saved
LONDON: Nearly 23,000 deaths in England could have been prevented if the first Covid-19 lockdown had been introduced earlier at the start of the outbreak, a UK public inquiry heard on Thursday.
The second report of an inquiry into the UK’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic criticized the government led by Boris Johnson in 2020 for a “lack of urgency” in the early days of the outbreak, adding that the lockdown was “too little, too late”.
According to the 800-page report, modeling shows that if the first lockdown had been implemented earlier it could have prevented 23,000 deaths in the first wave in England alone.
“If the lockdown had been implemented a week before 23 March, the evidence suggests that the number of deaths in the first wave would have fallen by 48 per cent in England alone by 1 July 2020,” said Heather Hallett, chair of the inquiry.
Retired senior judge Hallett added: “The tempo of the response needed to be stepped up. It wasn’t. February 2020 was a lost month.”
The inquiry chairman also said mandatory isolation might have been shorter or “may not have been necessary at all” if restrictions had been introduced earlier.
– ‘Unacceptable loss of life’ –
But the report, the second in a series of independent investigations, rejected claims that the government was wrong to implement the March 2020 lockdown.
“Without it, the increase in transmission would have led to an unacceptable loss of life,” the report said.
The UK has suffered one of the worst Covid-19 death tolls in Europe, with more than 128,500 deaths recorded by mid-July 2021.
More than 226,000 people have died from Covid in Britain since the global pandemic began in early 2020.
Johnson, prime minister from 2019 to 2022, has been criticized on several fronts for his pandemic response, including a lack of preparation and not having enough protective equipment for frontline staff.
At inquiry hearings last month, Johnson said he regretted the impact of his government’s decisions regarding children, particularly the “nightmare” school closures.
The report also criticized the “lack of trust” between Johnson and the leaders of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, who have devolved public health systems.
The first investigative report, published in July 2024, found that UK ministers and officials were woefully underprepared for a global pandemic.
A group representing families who lost loved ones during the pandemic condemned the government’s “catastrophic mismanagement” in a statement.
Families Bereaved by Covid-19 for Justice in the UK “We now know that many of our family members would still be alive today if not for the leadership of Boris Johnson and his colleagues.” he said.
