UK COVID inquiry to issue first report on preparedness

LONDON (Reuters) - A public inquiry examining Britain's response to the COVID-19 outbreak will issue its first report on Thursday, focusing on how well prepared the nation was for handling such a pandemic.

Britain recorded one of the world's highest number of fatalities from COVID with more than 230,000 deaths reported by December 2023.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered the inquiry in May 2021, and it was formally launched the following year with former judge Heather Hallett as its chair.

The inquiry was told in early evidence that the government was under-prepared and had failed to anticipate measures needed to protect the vulnerable.

That echoed the findings of the government's spending watchdog which concluded in a 2021 report that the government was not prepared for a crisis like the pandemic, had failed to learn from simulation exercises and was distracted by Britain's departure from the European Union.

"We know that for lives to be saved in the future, lessons must be learnt from the mistakes of the past," said Brenda Doherty on behalf of the campaign group, COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK. "Sadly, nobody knows the true cost of the government’s failure to prepare as we do."

The inquiry's first module has only examined Britain's preparedness. Later reports will provide assessments of the more politically charged issues of governance and decision-making during the pandemic against a backdrop of wide criticism of government incompetence.

Johnson himself was forced from office in July 2022, with revelations of parties during COVID lockdowns among the many scandals that ended his premiership. A parliamentary committee later concluded he had misled lawmakers over the parties.

His later successor as prime minister and the finance minister during the pandemic Rishi Sunak was also fined for breaking lockdown rules.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Alison Williams)