UK PM Johnson agrees to hold 'independent inquiry' into coronavirus handling

For the first time since the onset of the global pandemic, UK’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has committed to holding an "independent inquiry" into UK’s handling of the coronavirus, while speaking in a live-streamed address. The British PM, however, stressed that now wasn’t the time as the country was still battling with the outbreak. Johnson’s comments were made in response to the opposition lawmakers' demands of an inquiry into the handling of COVID-19 as the country topped casualties becoming one of the worst impacted by pandemic a couple of months ago.

While the parliamentarians in the opposition demanded an in-depth analysis on whether the severity of the disease was downplayed by Johnson's administration, they criticized the government for resorting to lockdown measures "when the crisis had picked up in full momentum". Further, the opposition accused PM Boris Johnson of delaying the mass testing and contact tracing efforts.

Government was too slow in providing the personal protective and medical equipment to the healthcare professionals to combat the coronavirus—UK's lawmakers.

As PM Boris Johnson dismissed the accusations against him about the delay in response to the pandemic, he made clear at the parliament that many lessons were learned after the pandemic had impacted the UK. “We will seek to learn the lessons of this pandemic in the future and certainly we will have an independent inquiry into what happened," he told parliament in a live-streamed conference. However, he did not reveal any further details into the matter, saying, that he will shortly update in this regard.

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PM Johnson rejected pleas to discuss 'deaths'

According to local reports, an independent group responsible for COVID-19 bereavement in the UK responded to Johnson’s commitment, saying, his pledge was a "long way from what families need to see". Organization Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice said in a statement, "We need to know that any inquiry will be public with the ability for families to contribute their experiences and that it will have the power to access all of the evidence and witnesses needed”. Earlier, the group had claimed that PM Johnson had rejected their plea to discuss concerns related to the deaths due to COVID-19, however, they met Labour leader Keir Starmer and now demanded an inquiry.

At Prime Minister's Questions streamed online, acting leader of the firm, Sir Ed Davey, raised a question, saying, “UK had suffered one of the worst death rates in the world and Europe's worst death rate for health and care workers, so, if the PM still rejects an immediate inquiry will he instead commit in principle to a future public inquiry?" Johnson responded, “Now was not the right moment to devote huge amounts of official time to an inquiry". 

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(Images: AP)