About 23,000 deaths could have been prevented in England if the first Covid-19 lockdown had been introduced sooner at the start of the pandemic, a UK public inquiry found Thursday.

The second report from an inquiry into the UK response to the Covid-19 pandemic criticised the government in 2020 led by Boris Johnson for a "lack of urgency" in the early days of the pandemic, adding the lockdown was "too little, too late".

Modelling shows that if the first lockdown had been imposed earlier, it could have prevented 23,000 deaths in England alone in the first wave, according to the 800-page report.

"Had the lockdown been imposed one week earlier than March 23, the evidence suggests that the number of deaths in England alone in the first wave up until July 1, 2020 would have been reduced by 4

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