Victims of the UK’s infected blood scandal, in which tens of thousands of people were  infected by contaminated blood or blood products provided by the public health service, will start receiving their final compensation payments this year, the government has said.infected by contaminated blood or blood products provided by the public health service, will start receiving their final compensation payments this year, the government said Tuesday.

Officials announced the compensation plans on Tuesday, a day after the publication of a report that found civil servants and doctors exposed patients to unacceptable risks by giving them blood transfusions or blood products tainted with HIV or hepatitis from the 1970s to the early 1990s.

The scandal is seen as the deadliest disaster in the history of the United Kingdom’s state-run National Health Service since its inception in 1948.The report said successive UK governments refused to admit wrongdoing and tried to cover up the scandal, in which an estimated 3,000 people died after receiving the contaminated blood or blood products. In total, the report said about 30,000 people were infected with HIV or hepatitis C, a kind of liver infection, over the period.

Cabinet Office Minister John Glen told lawmakers on Tuesday that he recognized that “time is of the essence,” and that victims who need payments most urgently will receive a further interim compensation of 210,000 pounds ($267,000) within 90 days, ahead of the establishment of the full payment plan.