Thousands of lives could have been saved: UK Covid inquiry

About 23,000 deaths could have been prevented in England if the first COVID-19 lockdown had been introduced sooner at the start of the pandemic, a U.K. public inquiry has found.

The second report from an inquiry into the U.K. response to the COVID-19 pandemic criticized the government in 2020 led by Boris Johnson for a "lack of urgency" in the early days of the pandemic, adding the lockdown was "too little, too late."

Modelling shows that if the first lockdown had been imposed earlier, it could have prevented 23,000 deaths in England alone in the first wave, according to the 800-page report.

"Had the lockdown been imposed one week earlier than March 23, the evidence suggests that the number of deaths in England alone in the first wave up until July 1, 2020 would have been reduced by 48 percent," inquiry chair Heather Hallett said.

"The tempo of the response should have been increased. It was not. February 2020 was a lost month," added Hallett, a retired senior judge.

The inquiry chair also said that if restrictions had been introduced sooner, the mandatory lockdown could have been shorter, or "might not have been necessary at all."

However, the report, the second in a series from the independent inquiry, rejected claims that the government was wrong to implement the March 2020 lockdown.

"Without it, the growth in transmission would have led to an unacceptable loss of life," the report said.

The U.K. suffered one of the worst COVID-19 death tolls in Europe with more than 128,500 fatalities recorded by mid-July 2021.