Lockdowns could have been “avoided entirely” during the pandemic if ministers had responded more quickly to the virus, the Covid-19 Inquiry had concluded.
Baroness Heather Hallett said measures came “too little, too late” and contributed to how Britain was affected by the pandemic.
“I can summarise my findings of the response as ‘too little, too late,’” Lady Hallett said in a statement.
She also acknowledged that lawmakers were forced to make “unenviable choices” and that thre were “few, if any, easy decisions to make”.
“Had the UK been better prepared, fewer lives would have been lost, the socio-economic costs would have been substantially reduced and some of the decisions politicians had to take would have been far more straightforward,” Lady Hallett said.
“There was a serious failure by all four governments to appreciate the level of risk and the calamity that the UK faced and the need to inject urgency into the response,” she added.
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THE COVID-19 INQUIRY
