UK's early response to COVID-19 one of worst public health failures: report

A man walks past an NHS COVID-19 vaccination centre in London, Britain, on Sept. 7, 2021. (Xinhua/Ray Tang)

Britain has done too little in the early weeks to stop coronavirus spreading, which is one of the country's worst public health failures, according to an official report.

LONDON, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Britain's failure to do more to stop the spread of coronavirus early in the pandemic was one of the country's worst public health failures, said an official report released Tuesday.

The government approach was to try to manage the situation and in effect achieve herd immunity by infection, according to the "Coronavirus: lessons learned to date" report from the Health and Social Care Committee and the Science and Technology Committee of the British parliament.

The result was that too little was done in the early weeks to stop COVID spreading, despite evidence from China and then Italy that it was a virus that was highly infectious, caused severe illness and for which there was no cure.

"The veil of ignorance through which the UK viewed the initial weeks of the pandemic was partly self-inflicted," said the report.

Across 150 pages, the report covers a variety of successes and failings. However, the report described the whole approach to the vaccination program, from the research and development through to the rollout of the jabs, as "one of the most effective initiatives in UK history."

People line up outside Bridge Park Community Leisure Center to receive the COVID-19 vaccines in Brent, northwest London, Britain, June 19, 2021. (Xinhua/Ray Tang)

Another 38,520 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 8,231,437, according to official figures released Tuesday.

The country also recorded another 181 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 137,944. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.

There are currently 7,003 patients in hospital with COVID-19.

More than 85 percent of people aged 12 and over in Britain have had their first dose of vaccine, and over 78 percent have received both, the latest figures showed.

Photo taken on March 31, 2021 shows a view of the National COVID Memorial Wall outside St Thomas' Hospital in London, Britain. (Xinhua/Han Yan)