The British government was recently criticized for failing to act quickly to prevent the COVID-19 cases in the country from rising.

An initial assessment by the British Parliament's Health and Social Care and Science and Technology committees dubbed the United Kingdom's COVID-19 response as slow and reactive.

British government's COVID-19 response criticized

The country was also criticized for managing the spread of the deadly virus instead of stopping its spread altogether. More criticisms ensued due to the country's delayed lockdown and failed contract tracing program.

The report also said that the United Kingdom made a grave error during the first three months of the pandemic because they didn't try to stop the virus from spreading. They also failed to adopt the approach of East and Southeast Asian countries.

Countries like Europe and Asia, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and South Korea implemented strict lockdowns at the start of the pandemic. They also employed social distance strategies, some as early as January 2020. In the United Kingdom, the lockdown only started on March 23, 2020.

However, ministers did not immediately impose a lockdown in the United Kingdom because of the official scientific advice that they received from the government.

In response, the government said that scientific and medical experts guided them. And they tried their best to take quick and decisive actions to save lives and protect healthcare workers, according to the Financial Times.

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UK's test and trace program dubbed as poor

The country's test and trace program were also criticized in the 150-page report. They said that Public Health England's efforts were poor.

"Despite being one of the first countries in the world to develop a test for Covid in January 2020, the United Kingdom failed to translate that scientific leadership into operational success in establishing an effective test and trace system during the first year of the pandemic," the report said via CNN.

The country also reportedly made a series of mistakes concerning community testing. But despite all these criticisms, the United Kingdom only recorded 138,167 fatalities since the pandemic started last year. This figure is much higher than other European countries but is much smaller compared to countries in other parts of the world.

COVID-19 cases in the UK on the rise

Last week, the United Kingdom recorded 133 COVID-19 deaths and 34,950 new cases.

According to Reuters, the figures show a slight increase from a day earlier, where 127 individuals died because of the virus. Despite the increasing number of active COVID-19 cases in the country, the United Kingdom has lifted most restrictions.

In July, the limits on indoor gathering were revoked. Nightclubs also reopened as long as but with a 1-meter social distancing rule.

According to CNBC, wearing face masks has also become widely voluntary, but some airlines retained their mask requirements. As of press writing, the United Kingdom has also eased its travel restrictions. Earlier this week, transport minister Grant Shapps announced that he would remove 47 countries from the red list.

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