Covid inquiry: UK action was “too little, too late” and led to avoidable deaths, report finds

Boris Johnson’s government repeatedly did “too little, too late” in response to the covid pandemic and could have saved 23 000 lives in England if a lockdown had been imposed a week earlier, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry has concluded. 1

Delays in imposing measures to combat the SARS-CoV-2 virus were “inexcusable,” said the inquiry’s chair, the retired appeal court judge Heather Hallett. Had the government put in place stringent restrictions by 16 March 2020 to limit its spread, mandatory lockdown from 23 March might conceivably have been avoided altogether, the report added.

Advisory restrictions such as contact tracing, self-isolation, household quarantine, face coverings, and respiratory hygiene could have avoided the need for a full lockdown, said Hallett. Lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 becam