“Decisions on lockdowns and social distancing during the early weeks of the pandemic - and the advice that led to them - rank as one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced,″ states the joint report from the House of Commons’ science and health committees. It was only when Britain’s National Health Service risked being overwhelmed by rapidly rising infections that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government finally ordered a lockdown. The deadly delay derived from the failure of British government ministers to question the recommendations of scientific advisers, resulting in a dangerous level of “groupthink” that caused them to dismiss the more aggressive strategies adopted in East and Southeast Asia to limit infections, the report said. driven by a subvariant of omicron that is even more easily spread - hospitalizations and deaths remain well below previous peaks.LONDON (AP) - Britain’s failure to impose a lockdown in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic cost thousands of unnecessary deaths and ranks among the country’s worst public health blunders, lawmakers concluded Tuesday in the nation’s first comprehensive report on the pandemic. Vaccination means that although cases are once again rising in the U.K. Fourth doses are being given to the vulnerable and those age 75 and over. Almost 92% of people age 12 and up have had two doses of a vaccine, and two-thirds have had a third, booster shot. Scientists agree that one success was the U.K.'s rapid and widely supported vaccination program. “We got the big calls right during the pandemic,” Johnson insisted in the House of Commons on Wednesday. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have eased up more slowly. Months of gradually loosening restrictions followed until England lifted mask-wearing rules, mandatory self-isolation for the infectious and other remaining restrictions even as omicron, the most transmissible variant yet, swept in. Weary Britons endured a third lockdown in the early months of 2021, when the more transmissible delta variant put Britain at the epicenter of Europe’s pandemic. Johnson wavered again as infections soared in the fall of 2020 but finally ordered a second lockdown. It is due to start hearings within weeks.Ĭritics say Johnson was slow to impose a lockdown as a new respiratory virus first seen in China started to spread early in 2020 and claim the delay cost thousands of lives. They said scientists’ recommendations were not always heeded by a prime minister whose laissez-faire instincts made him reluctant to clamp down on the economy and daily life.Īfter pressure from bereaved families, Johnson agreed to hold a public inquiry into his government’s handling of the pandemic, led by a retired senior judge. The government’s opponents and public health experts heavily criticized Britain’s response to the pandemic. He paid tribute “to them, the grief counsellors, charity workers and friends and families, as we pause to remember those we have lost.” Johnson, who was hospitalized in intensive care with COVID-19 in April 2020, said he had seen “first-hand the heroic efforts” of medical personnel. “Those lost to COVID will never be out of our hearts and minds, and today we reflect as a nation,” Johnson said in a message to mark the anniversary. A minute’s silence was held at noon (1200GMT), and people were encouraged to show flowers or shine a light in their window at 8 p.m. Members of bereaved families on Wednesday tied yellow ribbons to Westminster Bridge beside Parliament, near a memorial wall for pandemic victims emblazoned with thousands of hand-painted hearts. With civic freedoms restored but new confirmed cases rising once again, Wednesday was designated a day of reflection on a pandemic that has claimed almost 164,000 lives in the U.K., the highest COVID-19 death toll in Europe after Russia.īritain also had one of the developed world’s deepest economic downturns as the pandemic closed down swaths of the economy. The stringent measures lasted for about three months, and on-off restrictions continued until early this year. The strict lockdown imposed on Mashut offices, schools, restaurants, shops and playgrounds, and people who did not work in essential jobs only were allowed outside for exercise and limited tasks. LONDON - Britain paused Wednesday to remember the thousands of lives lost to the coronavirus in the two years since Prime Minister Boris Johnson plunged the country into its first lockdown with the command: “You must stay at home.”
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