COVID-19 Pandemic In England

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COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

was first confirmed to have spread to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

with two cases among Chinese nationals staying in a hotel in

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

on 31 January 2020. The two main public bodies responsible for health in England are

NHS England NHS England, officially the NHS Commissioning Board, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning side of the ...

and

Public Health England Public Health England (PHE) was an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care in England which began operating on 1 April 2013 to protect and improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities. Its formation came as a ...

(PHE). NHS England oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning side of the NHS in England, while PHE's mission is "to protect and improve the nation's health and to address inequalities". As of 14 September 2021, there have been 6,237,505 total cases and 117,955 deaths in England. In January 2021, it was estimated around 22% of people in England have had COVID-19. Healthcare in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

is administered by the

devolved Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territories h ...

governments, but there is no devolved government for England and so healthcare is the direct responsibility of the

UK Government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_es ...

. As a result of each country having different policies and priorities, a variety of differences now exist between these systems.

Timeline

Timeline of measures

September 2019 – January 2020 : Suspected cases

In May 2020, the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

reported that several members of a choir in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

had developed COVID-19-like symptoms shortly after the partner of one of the choir members returned from a business trip to

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei, Hubei Province in the China, People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the List of cities in China ...

, China, on 17 or 18 December. Earlier, in March 2020, it was reported that a 50-year-old man from

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

fell ill with COVID-19 symptoms on 20 January after he returned from

Ischgl Ischgl () is a town in the Paznaun valley in the Austrian state of Tyrol. Its ski resort is connected with that of Samnaun across the border in Switzerland to form one of the largest in the Alps. Ischgl was a major hotspot of the COVID-19 pandemi ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

; the resort was under investigation because it allegedly failed to report possible cases. Three members of his family, two friends from

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

and one from

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, US had the same symptoms. In June 2020, the BBC reported it was found COVID-19 in the UK had at least 1,356 origins, mostly from

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

(late February),

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

(early-to-mid-March), and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

(mid-to-late-March). In the same month, it was reported that a 53-year-old woman fell ill on 6 January, two days after returning from

Obergurgl Obergurgl is a village in the Ötztal Alps in Tyrol, Austria. Located in the municipality of Sölden, the village has approximately 400 year-round inhabitants, and is mainly a tourist resort. At an elevation of , Obergurgl is the highest parish i ...

resort in

. In August 2020, the

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into Manner of death, the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...

reportedly certified that the death of Peter Attwood (aged 84) on 30 January had been related to COVID-19 ('COVID-19 infection and bronchopneumonia', according to an email on 3 September, after COVID-19 was detected in his lung tissue), making him the first confirmed England and UK death from the disease. He first showed symptoms on 15 December 2019. Attwood had not travelled abroad. In November 2020, it was reported that a 66-year-old man had experienced symptoms of COVID-19 shortly after returning from holiday in Italy in September 2019, and his 44-year-old daughter had experienced similar symptoms. Scientists had previously speculated about COVID-19 in Italy as early as September 2019.

January 2020

On 31 January, two members of a family of Chinese nationals staying in a hotel in

, one of whom studied at the

University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...

, became the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the UK. Upon confirmation, they were transferred from Hull University Teaching Hospital to a specialist isolation facility, a designated High Consequence Infectious Diseases Unit in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

Royal Victoria Infirmary The Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) is a 673-bed tertiary referral hospital and research centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, with strong links to Newcastle University. The hospital is part of the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Tru ...

. On the same day, an evacuation flight from Wuhan landed at

RAF Brize Norton Royal Air Force Brize Norton or RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, about west north-west of London, is the largest station of the Royal Air Force. It is close to the village of Brize Norton, and the towns of Carterton and Witney. The station ...

and the passengers, none of whom were showing symptoms, were taken to quarantine, in a staff residential block at

Arrowe Park Hospital Arrowe Park Hospital is a large, acute hospital, located on a 15-acre (6.1 ha) section of Arrowe Park, close to the village of Upton, Wirral, Merseyside. It is one of three hospitals managed by Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation ...

on the Wirral. There had previously been contention over whether the government should assist the repatriation of UK passport holders from the most affected areas in China, or restrict travel from affected regions altogether. Some British nationals in Wuhan had been informed that they could be evacuated but any spouses or children with mainland Chinese passports could not. This was later overturned, but the delay meant that some people missed the flight.

February 2020

On 6 February, a third confirmed case, a man who had recently travelled to Singapore prior to visiting a ski resort in the

Haute-Savoie Haute-Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè d'Amont'' or ''Hiôta-Savouè''; en, Upper Savoy) or '; it, Alta Savoia. is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France, bordering both Switzerland and Italy. Its prefecture is ...

, France, was reported in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

. He had been the source of infection to six of his relatives during a stay in France, before returning to the UK on 28 January. Following confirmation of his result, the UK's CMOs expanded the number of countries where a history of previous travel associated with flu-like symptoms – such as fever, cough and difficulty breathing – in the previous 14 days would require self-isolation and calling

NHS 111 111 is a free-to-call single non-emergency number medical helpline operating in England, Scotland and parts of Wales. The 111 phone service has replaced the various non-geographic 0845 rate numbers and is part of each country's National Health S ...

. These countries included China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. On 10 February, the total number of cases in the UK reached eight as four further cases were confirmed in people linked to the affected man from Brighton. Globally, the virus had spread to 28 countries. On the morning of 10 February, the

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care The secretary of state for health and social care, also referred to as the health secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department of Health and Social Care. The incumbent ...

Matt Hancock Matthew John David Hancock (born 2 October 1978) is a British politician who served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January to July 201 ...

, announced The Health Protection (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020, to give public health professionals "strengthened powers" to keep affected people and those believed to be a possible risk of having the virus, in isolation. That day, the

, Merseyside, and the Kents Hill Park hotel and conference centre,

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...

became designated isolation units. The following day, two of the eight confirmed cases in the UK were reported by BBC News to be general practitioners. A ninth case was confirmed in London on 11 February.

March 2020

On 1 March, further cases were reported in

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

, some of them believed to be contacts of the case in Surrey who had no history of travel abroad. On 2 March, four further people in England tested positive. All had recently travelled from Italy; they were from Hertfordshire, Devon and Kent. The total number of UK cases was reported as having reached 40, though this was revised to 39 after additional testing. The following day, when the number of confirmed cases in the UK stood at 51, the UK government unveiled their ''Coronavirus Action Plan'', which outlined what the UK had done already and what it planned to do next. On 2 March, the first COVID-19 death occurred in a care home, but at that time care home data were not yet published. On 3 March, the first three hospital deaths were reported in Nottingham, Essex, and Buckinghamshire. On 15 March, the COVID-19 Hospitalisation in England Surveillance System (CHESS) was initiated across all NHS Trusts. On 17 March,

announced that all non-urgent operations would be postponed from 15 April to free up 30,000 beds. Additionally, many patients were discharged into care homes, initially this thought to have caused significant infections, and as a result deaths in care homes, however it is now believed that community infections were responsible for the infections. Also on 17 March,

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

Rishi Sunak Rishi Sunak (; born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party since October 2022. He previously held two Cabinet of ...

announced that £330bn would be made available in loan guarantees for businesses affected by the pandemic. By 18 March, over 1,000 patients were in hospital with COVID-19. This number rapidly grew and by 31 March exceeded 11,000. Admissions to hospital grew from less than 700 a day on 20 March to more than 2,400 a day by 31 March. By 20 March,

genome sequencing Whole genome sequencing (WGS), also known as full genome sequencing, complete genome sequencing, or entire genome sequencing, is the process of determining the entirety, or nearly the entirety, of the DNA sequence of an organism's genome at a ...

had identified ten viral lineages of COVID-19 in England (A, B, B1, B10, B10.2, B11, B12.1, B5, B8, B9). The research, which was at an early stage, concluded that the data were consistent with a large number of independent introductions into the UK, from places around the world, particularly Italy and other European countries. It was very likely that the true number of independent introductions was substantially higher. By 31 March, England was the worst affected country in the United Kingdom with over 21,000 confirmed infections; In March there were around 4,500 deaths in hospital but more than 6,700 patients who had recovered were discharged. ONS data for England and Wales suggests that by 31 March, England had seen over 200 COVID-19 deaths in care homes and more than 200 deaths at home.

April 2020

On 2 April the maximum number of hospital admissions in a day during the first wave was reached (around 3,000 patients); the number of daily hospital deaths from COVID-19 was now more than 600. On 12 April, the number of patients in hospital, for the first wave, peaked at 18,974 and the number of daily admissions due to COVID-19 had reduced to less than 1,900; more than 700 COVID-19 hospital deaths were recorded. Up to 24 April, ONS death registrations for England and Wales showed 19,643 had occurred in hospital, 5,890 in care homes, 1,306 in private homes and 301 in hospices. Of these deaths, 1,149 occurred in Wales. On 29 April, the method of reporting deaths in England was changed. Data from three sources are now cross checked against the list of people who have had a diagnosis of COVID-19 confirmed by a Public Health England or NHS laboratory. The three sources are: # data supplied to NHS England by the Hospital Trusts, # data from Public Health England Health Protection teams (mainly deaths not in hospitals), # Information obtained by linking the Second Generation Surveillance System (SGSS) to the NHS Demographic Batch Service. After checking, the records are merged into one database and duplicates removed so there is no double counting. The new method of counting deaths results in higher numbers than the previous method. On 29 April, the total number of deaths reported by NHS England was 21,400. The new method identified 23,550 deaths of people who had a positive test result confirmed by a PHE or NHS laboratory. The number of patients with COVID-19 in hospital steadily reduced until on 30 April it was around 12,900; at least 54,100 patients were admitted to hospital in April with COVID-19. The total number of deaths in hospital during April from COVID-19 exceeded 17,500; this data suggest that there were around 36,000 patients who had the disease that were discharged in April.

May 2020

By 3 May, daily admissions to hospital had further reduced to around 1,000, while discharges continued to exceed admissions and thus the number of people in hospital was now around 10,500. An app for the adult social care workforce in England was launched on 6 May to support workers during the COVID-19 outbreak. The Care Workforce app was developed by

NHSX NHSX is a United Kingdom Government unit with responsibility for setting national policy and developing best practice for National Health Service (NHS) technology, digital and data, including data sharing and transparency. It was established in ...

and the

NHS Business Services Authority The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care which provides a number of support services to the National Health Service in National Health Service (England) ...

. The GMB union told members not to use the app, saying that managers could identify staff who had complained about pay, testing and personal protective equipment through a chat feature. On 11 May, a set of COVID Alert Levels were published by the Government and many restrictions in England were eased; people who were unable to work from home were encouraged to return to work, but where possible avoid public transport. On 12 May, the number of people in hospital fell below 10,000 and the total number of deaths in hospital since 1 March had grown to at least 24,500. By 21 May, the number of hospital patients was below 8,000 and daily admissions were around 700. On 21 May, the lockdown rules were amended in England to allow people to meet one other person from another household, outdoors, but to remain 2 m (6 ft) apart. Outdoor sports such as golf or tennis were allowed with members of the same household or with one other person from another household, while maintaining social distancing. Households were allowed to drive any distance in England to destinations such as parks and beaches, but not to Wales or Scotland. On 27 May, Matt Hancock announced

NHS Test and Trace NHS Test and Trace is a government-funded service in England, established in 2020 to track and help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Despite its name, the programme was never in fact run by the NHS: the programme is part of the UK Health Secu ...

would begin operations the following day. The number of patients in hospital with COVID-19 continued to reduce and on 31 May was around 5,900. During the month at least 22,400 patients were admitted to hospital with COVID-19, the number of hospital deaths was around 5,200 and around 23,900 patients were discharged.

June 2020

Leicester coronavirus alert warning, Granby street

A study published on 8 June which included genome sequencing data concluded that in mid to late February travel from Italy resulted in the majority of importations. By 1 March this had changed to Spain and by mid-March it changed again to France; because of the travel restrictions imposed, importations after mid April were at very low levels. It was estimated that around half of the importations were by UK nationals returning to the UK. In the period up to 3 May, approximately 34% of detected UK transmission lineages arrived via travel from Spain, 29% from France, 14% from Italy and 23% from other countries. Less than 0.1% were from China. By 15 June the number of people in hospital had fallen steadily to around 3,900 and daily admissions were down to around 360, but each day there were still around 50 deaths reported. On 30 June the government imposed the first local lockdown in the UK after 10% of all positive cases in the UK over the past week were found in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

. Non-essential shops in the city had to close, and the public houses and restaurants hoping to reopen on 4 July had to delay opening for at least two weeks; schools would also be shut for most pupils. By 30 June daily COVID-19 hospital admissions were fewer than 200 and COVID-19 daily deaths in hospital were around 30; the total number in hospital with COVID-19 was fewer than 2,700.

July 2020

On Friday 24 July 2020 new regulations made it compulsory to wear face coverings in most indoor shops, shopping centres, banks, post offices and public transport hubs. Those breaking the rules could be fined up to £100. Face coverings remained optional in other indoor public places including museums, cinemas and hairdressers. Excluded from the regulations were venues where wearing a mask might be 'impractical', such as restaurants and gyms. Exemptions were available for children under 11, individuals with physical or mental illness or disability, and for anyone to whom it would cause significant distress. On 24 July it was reported that, as a result of the pandemic and job losses, almost 1,000 people applied to a restaurant in Manchester advertising a vacancy for a receptionist. Indoor gyms and pools started to re-open on 25 July. During July the total number of COVID-19 hospital admissions fell to around 3,050, the number of deaths in hospital from COVID-19 fell to around 480, and around 4,200 patients with the disease were discharged from hospitals.

August 2020

August saw the fewest monthly hospital admissions (1,600) since the start of the pandemic and hospital deaths (208); the number of patients in hospital on 31 August was under 500. Throughout August the daily hospital death rate was essentially in single digits. The rules aimed at stopping the spread of the virus were eased on 15 August: casinos, bowling alleys and conference halls were among a range of venues allowed to reopen across much of England. Also permitted were indoor performances with socially distanced live audiences (including in theatres and sports stadiums), wedding receptions for up to 30 people, skating rinks and beauticians as long as they had measures in place to reduce COVID-19 transmission. Beauticians, tattooists, spas and tanning salons could offer additional services, including front-of-face treatments such as eyebrow threading.

September 2020

On 2 September the minimum number of hospital patients since the start of the pandemic was recorded (451); hospital admissions were around 60 a day at the start of the month. Until 12 September, the number of deaths in hospital was essentially in single digits but thereafter rose until it was around 40 a day by the end of the month. On 8 September, following a rise in case numbers, the government published new social distancing rules to come into effect in England from 14 September. These restricted gatherings of separate households to groups of six or few people (the so-called "rule of six"), excluding work or educational settings. By 18 September, the COVID Symptom Study estimated the

R_0

value in England to be 1.4, meaning that cases were doubling every seven days. Hospital admissions in September were around 5,900. There were around 560 deaths in hospital and more than 3,750 discharges of patients who had caught COVID-19.

October 2020

Between July and September 2020, ever more extensive and increasingly rigorous ad hoc local regulations were introduced, which in many areas proved unsuccessful in controlling the spread of the virus. In England, all of these local regulations were swept away on 14 October, and replaced by new tier regulations with three levels of restrictions. The easing of restrictions and emergence of a second more infectious variant of COVID-19 resulted in a second wave of the virus becoming well established. Hospital admissions rose from less than 6,000 in September to over 25,000 in October. Almost 3,500 people who had tested positive for COVID-19 in the previous 28 days died in hospital from COVID-19 but more than 14,700 patients were discharged.

November 2020

After further forecasts predicting unsustainable pressure on the healthcare system, new uniform national restrictions were put in place from 5 November to at least 2 December. On 8 November, 1 million cases had been confirmed in England. Despite these tighter regulations, the number of hospital admissions during November was more than 41,200; deaths in hospital of patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 in the previous 28 days was around 8,300 with 29,000 patient discharges. On 30 November there were 13,700 people in hospital. It is now known that, in London, the new variant of COVID-19 accounted for around 25% of the cases.

December 2020

From 2 December, the national restrictions were replaced by a second version of tier regulations, again with three levels; 57% of the population was placed in Tier 2 and 42% in the strictest Tier 3. The government also announced that, from 23 December to 27 December, a 'Christmas bubble' would be permitted, allowing people from up to three households to meet in private homes and/or gardens, and travel between tiers for the purpose of meeting others in the same bubble. After the existence of the new variant – referred to as

Variant of Concern 202012/01 The Alpha variant (B.1.1.7) was a SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern. It was estimated to be 40–80% more transmissible than the wild-type SARS-CoV-2 (with most estimates occupying the middle to higher end of this range). It was first detecte ...

– was announced the government issued new public health guidance and were expected to impose transit restrictions. By mid-December around two-thirds of the cases reported in London were the new variant. On 19 December it was announced that a new "tier four" measure would be applied to Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, London and parts of Cambridgeshire, East Sussex, Essex and Surrey, and Christmas season relaxation would be limited to only Christmas Day. These attempts at controlling the second wave had limited success: the total number of hospital admissions rose again during December to more than 58,600, and deaths in hospital of patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 in the previous 28 days approached 10,600. Although almost 39,000 patients were discharged there were still more than 22,700 people in hospital on 31 December.

January 2021

On 1 January, the government announced that all primary schools in London would remain closed. This caused uproar from many headmasters and teaching staff in other areas. On 4 January the majority of primary schools opened. That evening, Boris Johnson made a televised address to the nation, announcing a third lockdown in England. The rules were similar to the first lockdown in March 2020 and schools would close for most pupils on 5 January. In view of the increase of hospitalized cases, the government's slogan was changed back to "Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives." On 25 January,

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

said the government would give an update on when schools can reopen in England as soon as they could. On the same day, the Health Secretary

said there were early signs that the current restrictions are working, but it was not a moment to ease them. The peak of hospital admissions occurred on 12 January at 4,134 patients; the peak number of people in hospital occurred almost a week later on 18 January at 34,336, this is over 80% higher than that recorded in the first wave of the pandemic. In January, the total number of patients with COVID-19 admitted to hospital exceeded 100,000, more than 22,000 patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 in the previous 28 days died but there were over 73,200 discharges. On 30 January 2021, a group of asylum seekers set light to a barracks building at

Napier Barracks Shorncliffe Army Camp is a large military camp near Cheriton in Kent. Established in 1794, it later served as a staging post for troops destined for the Western Front during the First World War. History The camp was established in 1794 when t ...

, where they had been housed temporarily pending resolution of their cases. The asylum seekers were beset by COVID-19 at the rate of one person in four. Coventry South MP

Zarah Sultana Zarah Sultana (born 31 October 1993) is a British Labour Party politician. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Coventry South since the 2019 general election. A supporter of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, she is on the left w ...

called on the government to "provide good, safe and liveable housing instead".

February 2021

On 1 February, door to door testing was announced to identify cases of the South African variant. There would be around 80,000 tests across 8 different areas of the country where the 11 cases were found that had no travel history. The cumulative total of deaths had surpassed 100,000 by 9 February. On 22 February, Boris Johnson announced the roadmap out of lockdown starting on 8 March with schools and colleges reopening and the lockdown ending on 21 June with nearly all restrictions being lifted. By the end of February, daily cases were as low as they were during September 2020, with 5,080 cases being reported in England on 28 February. In February, more than 35,800 people were admitted to hospital with COVID-19, around 9,400 patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 in the previous 28 days died but more than 44,200 patients recovered and were discharged.

March 2021

On 3 March, there were fewer than 10,000 patients in hospitals for the first time since 1 November 2020. Students returned to face-to-face education in schools and colleges on 8 March, with rapid testing being carried out in secondary schools. By 13 March, over 20 million people had received their first dose of vaccinations, as well as over 1 million people having received their second dose. There had been a surge of infections in many countries of Europe, however the current roadmap out of England's lockdown would still go as planned. On March 29, the next phase of easing the lockdown took place, with people being able to meet up in groups of 6 or 2 households outdoors, and outdoor sporting facilities could reopen. Cases began to drop towards the end of March, with less than 3,000 people getting infected a day. In March, just over 11,400 were admitted to hospital, around 2,090 people who had tested positive for COVID-19 in the previous 28 days died in hospital and more than 17,000 people were discharged.

April 2021

On 5 April, Boris Johnson announced the next phase of the lockdown easing would go as planned, with pubs and non-essential shops reopening from 12 April. Over 10 million people had been fully vaccinated by 23 April with the cumulative total of second doses exceeding 10 million. On 18 April a one-day "trial"

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

Sefton Park Sefton Park is a public park in south Liverpool, England. The park is in a district of the same name, located roughly within the historic bounds of the large area of Toxteth Park. Neighbouring districts include modern-day Toxteth, Aigburth, ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

on 2 May that year was announced, to be headlined by band

Blossoms In botany, blossoms are the flowers of stone fruit trees (genus ''Prunus'') and of some other plants with a similar appearance that flower profusely for a period of time in spring. Colloquially, flowers of orange are referred to as such as wel ...

. The festival was notable as it was to be the first festival in the UK for fourteen months with no

social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious disea ...

or face masks following the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. In April, just over 4,000 people with COVID-19 had been admitted to hospital; around 450 patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 in the previous 28 days died but over 5,400 people were discharged. The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 on 30 April was 1,161 and daily admissions from the disease had dropped to around 80. The effectiveness of the vaccine is beginning to become apparent as ONS data shows that as a percentage of all deaths from COVID-19 those in care homes has reduced from around 20% a week at its peak to less than 15% in April.

May 2021

On 6 May, there were fewer than 1,000 patients with COVID-19 in hospital; the last time this had happened was mid-September 2020. On 20 May the number of COVID-19 patients in hospital was 749, the last time this level had occurred was mid-September 2020. Cases began to rise towards the end of May, mostly in the North West. This was due to the spread of the Delta (Indian) variant. Just over 2,600 people were admitted to hospital in May, there were 170 deaths in hospital of people who had tested positive for COVID-19 in the previous 28 days; more than 2,700 patients recovered from the virus and were discharged.

June 2021

At the beginning of June the

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D ( NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also ...

variant had become the dominant strain in England, the increased transmission rate associated with it had resulted in a small increase in daily admissions and the number of people in hospital was now around 800. On 14 June it was announced that the final step of easing the lockdown on 21 June would be delayed for 4 weeks until 19 July. Government research found a 50% increase in infections from 3 May to 7 June, and an increase in the Delta variant, which became dominant in the UK. The rise in infections is, however, strongest among younger, unvaccinated patients. Older, vaccinated people are less at risk. A third wave of infections had begun in June, and around 110,000 swab tests carried out in England from 20 May to 7 June appeared to show COVID-19 cases were doubling every 11 days. The disease was most common in the north-west and one person in 670 was infected. COVID-19 hospital admissions in June were slightly higher than May at around 405,700 and the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 at the end of June was almost double that for the end of May at 1,560; there were 247 hospital deaths in June of people who had tested positive for COVID-19 in the previous 28 days. Over 4,100 COVID-19 patients were discharged in June.

July 2021

In July, cases began to rise rapidly. On 19 July, the 4 week delayed "Freedom Day" took place. Social distancing and mask wearing became optional, and night clubs were allowed to re-open, however self-isolation remained mandatory for close contacts of a positive case. The total number of infections in England surpassed 5 million on 27 July. Despite the rise in cases, deaths and hospitalisations had been lower compared to the previous waves before due to the vaccination programme. Cases began to fall after 17 July when 50,955 cases were reported, however scientists believed that it was too early to say if infection rates had dropped. Over 19,000 people were admitted to hospital with COVID-19 in July, more than 1,140 people died in hospital from COVID-19 but there almost 14,500 patients had been discharged after recovering. ONS data showed that as a percentage of all deaths from COVID-19, those in care homes has fallen from around 20% at its peak to around 10%.

August 2021

Self-isolation rules changed: from 16 August those who had been in contact with a positive COVID-19 case no longer needed to self-isolate if they were fully vaccinated or under the age of 18. With more social and household mixing, there has been an inevitable rise in hospital admissions to more than 23,000; the number of people dying in hospital from COVID-19 was almost double that of July at 2,100. August saw more than 19,800 hospital discharges.

September 2021

During September, the number of people in hospital continued to rise and the weekly number of excess deaths from other causes increased to around 600. Hospital deaths from COVID-19 during September were around 2500 and there were almost 18,500 discharges. On 14 September, Prime Minister Johnson warned that COVID-19 remained a risk in England as the autumn and winter approached, and unveiled the government's plans to protect the NHS. This included continued testing, tracing, and prioritizing the vaccination of children 12–15 (with drop-in clinics to be run at schools), those who are not yet vaccinated, and the booster dose programme. Businesses would also be encouraged to voluntarily use the NHS COVID Pass. Johnson also discussed a "Plan B" that would be implemented in the event the NHS is in danger of being overwhelmed, which would include reinstating mandatory masking in certain settings, and mandating proof of vaccination for large gatherings and other settings. Johnson stated that the implementation of "Plan B" would be based on multiple metrics (including hospitalizations, caseloads, and other factors), and would "give us the confidence that we don't have to go back to the lockdowns of the past.". If implemented, Plan B would bring England in line with restrictions in the remainder of the

Home Nations Home Nations is a collective term with one of two meanings depending on context. Politically it means the nations of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales). In sport, if a sport is g ...

October 2021

The

NHS Confederation The NHS Confederation, formerly the National Association of Health Authorities and Trusts, is a membership body for organisations that commission and provide National Health Service services founded in 1990. The predecessor organisation was calle ...

and the

British Medical Association The British Medical Association (BMA) is a registered trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom. The association does not regulate or certify doctors, a responsibility which lies with the General Medical Council. The association's headquar ...

urged the government to implement "Plan B" for COVID-19 in the winter due to a backlog of five million patients. However, the government stated that there were currently no plans to do so. The number of people in hospital at the end of October was around 50% greater than at the end of September, the number of deaths in hospital was around 2,500 and there were around 18,000 discharges.

November 2021

On 27 November, the first UK cases of the

Omicron variant Omicron (B.1.1.529) is a variant of SARS-CoV-2 first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) by the Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa on 24 November 2021. It was first detected in Botswana and has spread to become the ...

were found in Essex and Nottingham. New restrictions went into force, including several African countries being placed on the Red list for travel, mandating PCR testing of anyone entering the UK from outside the

Common Travel Area The Common Travel Area (CTA; ga, Comhlimistéar Taistil, ) is an open borders area comprising the United Kingdom, Ireland, Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. The British Overseas Territories are not included. Based on agreements that are no ...

, masks becoming mandatory on public transport and at shops, and all close contacts of an Omicron variant case being required to self-isolate regardless of vaccination status.

December 2021

On 8 December, Johnson announced that "Plan B" would be activated in England due to concerns over the Omicron variant and the increasing rate of infections it could cause, explaining that "the best way to ensure we all have a Christmas as close to normal as possible is to get on with Plan B." Workers were advised to stay at home if possible. On 10 December, mask mandates were extended to cinemas and theatres. From 15 December, the NHS COVID Pass became mandatory at nightclubs, unseated indoor events with 500 attendees or more, unseated outdoor events with 4,000 attendees or more, and any event with more than 10,000 attendees. Hospital admissions during December were around 50% higher than in November at around 33,800 patients, however, hospital deaths were slightly lower at around 2,500; more than 24,400 patients were discharged in December.

January 2022

On 19 January 2022, Johnson announced that the "Plan B" restrictions would end from 27 January. Johnson cited booster vaccination progress and reports that Omicron had peaked as justification, but warned that "we must learn to live with COVID in the same way we live with flu". There were almost 54,000 hospital admissions in January along with over 4,700 deaths. Over 48,000 patients were discharged from hospital in January.

February 2022

In February more people with COVID-19 were discharged from hospital (around 32,000) than were admitted (around 30,000). Another 2,800 hospital patients who had the virus died.

March 2022

The government decided to cut down on the number of people in England who would be eligible for free influenza vaccination in autumn 2022: people aged 50–64 and school children aged 11–15 would no longer qualify. Nick Kaye of the

National Pharmacy Association The National Pharmacy Association is a British industry trade association for independent Community Pharmacy established in 1921. History The NPA’s origins can be traced to 1921, when the Retail Pharmacists’ Union (RPU) was founded as a body ...

said, "It's short-sighted to cut back on this sensible public health measure, given that no one can say for certain that we'll be through the Covid pandemic by next winter", adding that hospitals would be overstretched for years and free flu vaccination helps keep people out of hospital. Giulia Guerrini of online pharmacy Medino maintained that vaccination mattered since, "immune systems are lower than ever due to our bodies having had a lower amount of exposure to viruses than normal over the last two years". March saw another large increase in hospital admissions of patients with COVID-19 (over 52,000), and patients who died having tested positive for COVID-19 increased to around 3,250.

April 2022

Hospital admissions of patients testing positive for COVID-19 reduced to fewer than 45,000 in April and the number discharged was around 47,000. The number of deaths in hospital of patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 was just over 4,000. Free COVID-19 testing was stopped for most individuals and the majority of Lighthouse labs that supplied centralised COVID-19 testing were closed.

May 2022

June 2022

Hospital death statistics

Statistics for deaths in hospital up to 30 December 2020 showed that those with a pre-existing condition – especially diabetes, chromic kidney disease, dementia or ischaemic heart disease but also asthma, chronic neurological or pulmonary disease – were around twenty-three times more likely to die than those who did not have one. Age and sex also influenced the risk of death, with men between 60 and 79 showing a death rate almost double that of women. Men over 80 were over 30% more likely to die than women in the same age group. The percentages in each category showed only small changes through the year. Statistics for deaths in hospital for 2021 showed only small changes from the data recorded in 2020 but the effectiveness of vaccination did result in lower death rates in those over 80, particularly for men.

2020

2021

ONS data

Registered deaths

The

Office of National Statistics An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific dut ...

publishes data on weekly deaths in England and Wales, which include information on deaths from COVID-19. These data give the number of deaths registered in England during a seven-day period; the total number of deaths will be greater as there is normally a delay between the date death occurred and the date it is registered.

2020

Up to and including the week ending 6 March 2020, the number of deaths in England was on average 442 fewer each week than the five-year average (2015–2019). The number of deaths above the average is generally referred to as 'excess' deaths, in both 2020 and 2012 the data were influenced by many factors including the lockdowns, social distancing, mask wearing, reduced elective surgery and less medical diagnosis and care. This resulted in very few deaths from influenza, slightly less from road traffic accident but more because people did not seek or were unable to get healthcare. The total number of excess deaths in England for the whole of 2020, based on the 5 year average for 2015–2019, was 71,677 but if the starting point of the pandemic is taken as 6 March, the total number of excess deaths would be more than 76,000. A recent BMJ paper based on a 4-year average (2016–2019) reported a value of 85,400 (83,900 to 86,800 (95% confidence intervals)) excess deaths for England and Wales in 2020; on a pro rata basis this would give a value of around 79,800 for England. The registration data were affected by closure of the registry offices over bank holidays, Christmas and the New Year. In addition, 2020 was a 53-week year.

2021

For the first nine weeks of 2021 the total number of excess deaths in 2021 continued to increase, then from 12 March it started to reduce, this in likely to be in part is because some of the people who died prematurely from COVID-19 would have succumbed to something else at a slightly later date. At the beginning of July the number of excess deaths started to rise again, many of these deaths are not attributed to COVID-19 which suggests delays in obtaining diagnosis and subsequent treatment in 2020 and 2021 has starting to influence the data. The data are affected by a number of public holidays; 2 and 9 April – Good Friday and Easter Monday Bank Holiday, 7 May – Spring Bank Holiday, 30 August – Summer Bank Holiday.

2022

The ONS 5 year average for 2022 includes data from 2016-2019 and 2021, as the number of deaths in 2021 was significantly above the previous 5 year average there will be a significant effect on the excess death data.

Covid-19 deaths by place of occurrence

13 March – 4 September 2020

The ONS data includes information on deaths by place of occurrence. During the first wave of infections, the majority of deaths were in hospital (63%) but deaths in care homes was also high (30%). The percentage of deaths in each setting remained essentially constant from mid June to early September.

11 September 2020 – 1 January 2021

During the second wave there was a significant increase in the percentage of deaths in hospital, and a corresponding decrease in care-home deaths.

2 January 2021 – present

COVID-19 deaths by age

ONS Data are only available for England and Wales; the differences in the percentage of all deaths with age between the two waves of the pandemic were small. Almost three-quarters of the deaths occurred in those over 75 years (around 11% of the population) while those aged between 70 and 75 accounted for a further 9% of the deaths. Some differences were observed between the genders, with a generally higher percentage of deaths for men; the exception was those over 75, but this reflects the greater number of older women in the population.

Vaccination programme

A programme of mass vaccinations began on 8 December 2020, with priority given to the elderly, their carers and frontline health and social care workers. Although there is a lag between catching the disease and mortality, the ONS data provided a way of identifying the effectiveness of the vaccination programme; only combined date for England and Wales are available. In December 2020, around 75% of deaths registered in England and Wales where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate were in the 75+ age group, following the vaccination program by the end of March this had fallen to 63%. By the end of March 2021, around 50% of the population had received at least one dose of the vaccination and as a result the total number of registered deaths from COVID-19 had fallen from a maximum of more than 8,000/week to less than 700/week. An alternative source that confirms the effectiveness of the vaccination program in England was the deaths in hospital data released daily by NHS. The caveat when considering this information is that around 30% of all deaths from Covid are not in hospitals and the majority of these deaths are people who are likely to be 80+ years old. In the period 1 January to 26 March 2021 there was a significant and continuous decrease in the weekly number of hospital deaths being recorded in the 80+ age group from 58.4% to 49.2%. In June 2021 it was calculated that

general practice General practice is the name given in various nations, such as the United Kingdom, India, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to the services provided by general practitioners. In some nations, such as the US, similar services may be describe ...

had delivered 27.3 million out of 41.1 million covid-19 vaccinations in England at that point, with better response rates than the "mass" centres. This was considerably more than expected. In February 2022, concerns have been presented about young children's access to Covid vaccines when it was claimed that they would not be included in school immunization programs in England. Following the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation's guidance, all children aged five to eleven in England will receive Covid vaccination (JCVI).

Regulations and legislation

The government published the Health Protection (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020 on 10 February 2020, a

statutory instrument In many countries, a statutory instrument is a form of delegated legislation. United Kingdom Statutory instruments are the principal form of delegated or secondary legislation in the United Kingdom. National government Statutory instrument ...

covering the legal framework behind the government's initial containment and isolation strategies and its organisation of the national reaction to the virus for England. Other published regulations include changes to

Statutory Sick Pay In the United Kingdom statutory sick pay (SSP) is paid by an employer to all employees who are off work because of sickness for longer than 3 consecutive workdays (or 3 non-consecutive workdays falling within an 8 week period) but less than 28 week ...

(into force on 13 March), and changes to

Employment and Support Allowance Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group o ...

and

Universal Credit Universal Credit is a United Kingdom social security payment. It is means-tested and is replacing and combining six benefits for working-age households with a low income: income-related Employment and Support Allowance, income-based Jobseeker's ...

(also 13 March). On 19 March, the government introduced the

Coronavirus Act 2020 The Coronavirus Act 2020 (c. 7) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that grants the government emergency powers to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. The act allows the government the discretionary power to limit or suspend public ga ...

, which grants the government discretionary emergency powers in the areas of the NHS, social care, schools, police, the Border Force, local councils, funerals and courts. The act received

royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in other ...

on 25 March 2020. Closures to pubs, restaurants and indoor sports and leisure facilities were imposed via The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Business Closure) (England) Regulations 2020 (SI 327). On 23 March the Government announced a number of restrictions on movement some of which were later enacted into law, these included: # Shopping for basic necessities, as infrequently as possible; # One form of exercise a day – for example a run, walk, or cycle – alone or with members of your household (was not enacted in law); # Any medical need, to provide care or to help a vulnerable person; # Travelling to and from work, but only where this is absolutely necessary and cannot be done from home. The full regulations are detailed in: * Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020 **amended on 22 April by The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 ***and further amended on 13 May by the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2020

Local lockdown regulations

In England, up until 14 October 2020 most of the COVID-19 lockdown regulations covered the whole country, but some local areas of particular concern are or have been subject to more restrictive rules at various times, namely

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

Blackburn with Darwen Blackburn with Darwen is a borough and unitary authority area in Lancashire, North West England. It consists of the industrial town of Blackburn and the market town of Darwen including other villages around the two towns. Formation It was fou ...

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

Tameside The Metropolitan Borough of Tameside is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in England. It is named after the River Tame, Greater Manchester, River Tame, which flows through the borough, and includes the towns of Ashton-under-Lyne, Aud ...

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, wh ...

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is within ...

Trafford Trafford is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England, with an estimated population of 235,493 in 2017. It covers Retrieved on 13 December 2007. and includes the area of Old Trafford and the towns of Altrincham, Stretford, Ur ...

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

Pendle Pendle may refer to: * Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England ** Pendle (UK Parliament constituency) * Pendle Hill in Lancashire, England ** Forest of Pendle, hilly landscape surrounding the hill * Pendle College of the University of Lancaster * ...

Hyndburn Hyndburn is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. Its council is based in Accrington and covers the outlying towns of Clayton-le-Moors, Great Harwood, Oswaldtwistle and Rishton. The borough was created in 197 ...

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

Calderdale Calderdale is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England, whose population in 2020 was 211,439. It takes its name from the River Calder, and dale, a word for valley. The name Calderdale usually refers to the borough through which the u ...

and

Kirklees Kirklees is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England, governed by Kirklees Council with the status of a metropolitan borough. The largest town and administrative centre of Kirklees is Huddersfield, and the district also includes ...

. In most cases, the effect of the local regulations had been to slow down the gradual easing of the lockdown regulations which applied to the rest of the country.

Tier regulations

In England the local lockdown regulations were swept away on 14 October 2020, and were replaced by the

first COVID-19 tier regulations in England On 14 October 2020, the UK Government abandoned its attempts to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2 by means of piecemeal local regulations and introduced a three-tier approach across England, with legal restrictions varying according to gover ...

. The restrictions were enforced by three

statutory instruments In many countries, a statutory instrument is a form of delegated legislation. United Kingdom Statutory instruments are the principal form of delegated or secondary legislation in the United Kingdom. National government Statutory instrument ...

, as follows: * "Tier 1": The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Local COVID-19 Alert Level) (Medium) (England) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1103) * "Tier 2": The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Local COVID-19 Alert Level) (High) (England) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1104) * "Tier 3": The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Local COVID-19 Alert Level) (Very High) (England) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1105) These are referred to as the 'first tier regulations". The regulations relate to England only. Following the November lockdown, a new framework of tiers, known as the second tier regulations, were introduced in

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020 The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1374) is an English emergency statutory instrument that replaced the The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No. 4) Regulati ...

. The regulations apply from 2 December 2020 until 2 February 2021, with special arrangements over the Christmas period, 23–27 December 2020. In December 2020, a new Fourth Tier was added to the second tier regulations. Households in this tier were subjected to further restrictions including a restrictions on movement, a ban on international travel and a ban on meeting more than one person outside. The Christmas regulations were changed, so that only households in Tiers 1–3 could mix with up to three other households only on Christmas Day only; Tier 4 households could not mix over the festive period.

Travel restrictions

On 7 May, the government released a list of countries with quarantine rules when returning to England.

Impact

Finance and the economy

During the second half of March, one million British workers applied for the

benefit scheme. On 20 March the government announced a COVID-19 Job Retention Scheme, where it would offer grants to companies to pay 80% of a staff wage each month up to a total of £2,500 per a person, if companies kept staff on their payroll. The scheme would cover three months' wages and would be backdated to the start of March. Following a three-week extension of the countrywide lockdown the scheme was extended until the end of June 2020. Initially the scheme was only for those workers who started work at their company on or before 28 February 2020; this was later changed to 19 March 2020, the day before the scheme was announced, allowing 200,000 additional workers to be part of it. On the first day of operation 140,000 companies used the scheme. Later the scheme was extended until the end of October with the Chancellor saying that from August companies would have to contribute towards the 80% of employees wages that the government was covering. It was stated that the scheme was costing £14 billion a month to run, with nearly a quarter of all workers in Britain furloughed by their employers within two weeks of the start of the scheme. The decision to extended the job retention scheme was made to avoid mass redundancies, company bankruptcies and potential unemployment levels not seen since the 1930s. In March the Self Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) was announced. The scheme paid a grant worth 80% of self employed profits up to £2,500 each month, for companies whose trading profit was less than £50,000 in the 2018–19 financial year or averaged less than £50,000 over the last three financial tax years.

HM Revenue & Customs HM Revenue and Customs (His Majesty's Revenue and Customs, or HMRC) is a non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial Departments of the United Kingdom Government, department of the His Majesty's Government, UK Government responsible fo ...

(HMRC) were tasked with contacting those who were eligible and the grant was taxable. The government also had announced a six-month delay on tax payments. Self employed workers who pay themselves a salary and dividends are not covered by the scheme and instead had to apply for the job retention scheme. The scheme went live on 13 May. The scheme went live ahead of schedule and people were invited to claim on a specific date between 13 and 18 May based on their Unique Tax Reference number. Claimants would receive their money by 25 May or within six days of a completed claim. By 15 May, more than 1 million self employed people had applied to the scheme. The government announced Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF) and changes to the Small Business Grant Fund (SBGF) on 17 March. The SBGF was changed from £3,000 to £10,000, while the RHLGF offered grants of up to £25,000. £12.33 billion in funding was committed to the SBGF and the RHLGF schemes with another £617 million added at the start of May. By 25 April only around 50% of eligible business had received funding. On 23 March the Government announced the COVID-19 Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) for small and medium-sized businesses and Covid Corporate Financing Facility for large companies. The government banned banks from seeking personal guarantees on COVID-19 Business Interruption loans under £250,000 following complaints. COVID-19 Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) was announced on 3April and later tweaked to include more companies. In May the amount a company could borrow on the scheme was raised from £50 million to £200 million. Restrictions were put in place on companies on the scheme including dividends payout and bonuses to members of the board. On 20 April the Government announced a scheme worth £1.25 billion to support innovative new companies that could not claim for COVID-19 rescue schemes. The government additionally announced the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) for small and medium size businesses. The scheme offered loans of up to £50,000 and was interest free for the first year before an interest rate of 2.5% a year was applied, with the loan being paid back within six years. Businesses who had an existing CBILS loan of up to £50,000 could transfer on to this scheme, but had to do so by 4 November 2020. The scheme launched on 4 May. The loan was 100% guaranteed by the government and was designed to be simpler than the CBILS scheme. More than 130,000 BBLS applications were received by banks on the first day of operation with more than 69,500 being approved. On 13 May the Government announced that it was under writing Trade credit insurance, to prevent businesses struggling in the pandemic from having no insurance cover. On 12 May almost £15 billion of state aid had been given to businesses. The Treasury and the Bank of England on 17 March announced the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF). The

Resolution Foundation The Resolution Foundation is an independent British think tank established in 2005. Its stated aim is to improve the standard of living of low- and middle-income families. Appointments In June 2015, the former Conservative MP David Willetts to ...

surveyed 6,000 workers, and concluded that 30% of those in the lowest

income bracket An income bracket is a category of people whose income falls within defined upper and lower levels. In governmental planning, entire populations are divided into income brackets. These brackets are used to categorize demographic data as well as det ...

had been affected by the pandemic compared with 10% of those in the top fifth of earners. The foundation said that about a quarter of 18 to 24-year-olds included in the research had been furloughed whilst another 9% had lost their job altogether. They also said that 35 to 44 year olds were least likely to be furloughed or lose their jobs with only around 15% of the surveyed population having experienced these outcomes. Earlier research by the

Institute for Fiscal Studies The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) is an economic research institute based in London, United Kingdom, which specialises in UK taxation and public policy. It produces both academic and policy-related findings. The institute's aim is to "a ...

concluded that young people (those under 25) and women were more likely to be working in a shutdown business sector. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' reported that after the government had suspended the standard tender process so contracts could to be issued "with extreme urgency", over a billion pounds of state contracts had been awarded under the new fast-track rules. The contracts were to provide food parcels, personal protective equipment (PPE) and assist in operations. The largest contract was handed to Edenred by the

Department for Education The Department for Education (DfE) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for child protection, child services, education (compulsory, further and higher education), apprenticeships and wider skills in England. A Department ...

, it was worth £234 million and was for the replacement of free school meals.

National health service response

Appointments and self-isolation

Coronavirus Pod at Hull Royal Infirmary (geograph 6406192)

In March, hospitals in England began to cancel all elective procedures. On 22 March, the government announced that it would be asking about 1.5 million people (everyone in England with certain health conditions that carry serious risk if infected) to "shield" for 12 weeks. They were to be notified by mail or text messaged by their NHS general practitioners, and provided deliveries of medication, food, and household essentials, delivered by pharmacists and local governments, and at least initially paid for by the UK government. Members of the public were told to stay at home, should they suspect they have symptoms of COVID-19, and not visit a GP, pharmacy, or hospital. For advice, the public were told to use a dedicated online self-assessment form before calling NHS 111, the non-emergency medical helpline. To allow vulnerable patients with underlying conditions to still be able to attend for routine blood tests without having to come to a hospital, from 8 April, the

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust The Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS foundation trust in Sheffield, England. Founded in 2001 and awarded foundation status in 2004, the trust covers Sheffield's two major adult hospitals, the Northern General Hospit ...

opened a drive-through

phlebotomy Phlebotomy is the process of making a puncture in a vein, usually in the arm, with a cannula for the purpose of drawing blood. The procedure itself is known as a venipuncture, which is also used for intravenous therapy. A person who performs a p ...

service operating out of a tent in the car park of

Sheffield Arena Sheffield Arena, known for sponsorship purposes as Utilita Arena Sheffield, is a multi-purpose arena located in Sheffield, England. It is situated near Meadowhall and lies between Sheffield city centre and Rotherham town centre. Opened in 1991 ...

. This allows patients to have their blood tests taken from within their car, in a similar manner to how COVID-19 swabbing drive-through stations work. Following the success of the service, it was expanded to cover all patients registered with any GP in the Sheffield area from 27 April.

Beds

NHS England freed up 30,000 beds by discharging patients who were well enough and by delaying non-emergency treatment, and acquired use of 8,000 beds in private sector facilities. Emergency building work was undertaken to add capacity to existing hospitals, 52 beds in

, for example. An additional capacity of almost 20,000 beds was created with

NHS Nightingale Hospitals COVID-19 hospitals in the United Kingdom are temporary hospitals set up in the United Kingdom and overseas territories as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They principally include the seven NHS England Nightingale Hospitals, NH ...

in major conurbations across the United Kingdom. Only a small amount of the capacity was used, and most of the hospitals were put on standby as the situation progressed. On 18 October 2020, The Guardian reported that according to the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

(NHS) report, the Greater Manchester is at risk of running out of hospital beds during the pandemic. NHS data revealed that before Friday 211 of the 257 critical care beds were occupied in Greater Manchester, and 82% of the total supply was in use by Covid-positive people or people admitted for other critical cases.

Communication

's approach to communications during the pandemic was described as "truly dreadful" by Sir

Richard Leese Sir Richard Charles Leese, CBE (born 21 April 1951) is a former British politician who served as the leader of Manchester City Council from 1996 to 2021. He has been a member of the Labour Party since 1984. On 6 May 2017, Leese was appointe ...

, chair of

Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership The Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership was established in 2015 as one of the first Sustainability and transformation plans in England as a key part of devolution in the United Kingdom. It was then transformed into an integrated c ...

in May 2021. He said their tight control of public communications had made getting crucial messages to the public a "nightmare". "We took the view that having a fully informed public might have helped us tackle covid, but that's not the view we got from NHSE. People's willingness to comply with guidelines around covid was beginning to weaken and we wanted to get a message out

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

our hospitals were on the edge of falling over. We wanted to have responsible media to be able to go into hospitals and tell that story, but it took us ages to get consent to do that." Although this criticism was rejected by NHS England medical director Steve Powis dozens of local NHS leaders and communications staff privately agreed.

Law and order

In March, police forces in each nation of the UK were given powers to arrest and issue fixed penalty notices (FPNs) to citizens who broke lockdown rules. The National Police Chiefs' Council said police had issued their first FPNs for people breaking lockdown rules on 27 March. The penalty amounts were £60, reduced to £30 if paid within 14 days. By 31 March, some police forces and individual officers were being criticised by a variety of people including former

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

judge

Lord Sumption Jonathan Philip Chadwick Sumption, Lord Sumption, (born 9 December 1948), is a British author, medieval historian and former senior judge who sat on the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom between 2012 and 2018. Sumption was sworn in as a Just ...

, former Justice secretary

David Gauke David Michael Gauke (; born 8 October 1971) is a British political commentator, solicitor and former politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South West Hertfordshire from 2005 to 2019. He served in the Cabinet under Theresa May, mo ...

, former

George Osborne George Gideon Oliver Osborne (born Gideon Oliver Osborne; 23 May 1971) is a former British politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the ...

and privacy and civil liberties group

Big Brother Watch Big Brother Watch is a non-profit non-party British civil liberties and privacy campaigning organisation. It was launched in 2009 by founding director Alex Deane to campaign against state surveillance and threats to civil liberties. It was fou ...

for over-zealous and incorrect application of the new powers. New guidance was released by the National Police Chiefs Council. According to the National Police Chiefs' Council, around 9,000 people were issued FPNs for breaking lockdown rules in England and Wales between 27 March and 27 April. From 13 May,

amendments An amendment is a formal or official change made to a law, contract, constitution, or other legal document. It is based on the verb to amend, which means to change for better. Amendments can add, remove, or update parts of these agreements. The ...

to the regulations increased the initial penalty to £100. In May 2020, the

Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal adv ...

stated 56 people were wrongly charged with offences related to the pandemic. This was mainly due to Welsh regulations being applied in England and vice versa. Some fixed penalty notices issued for breaking lockdown laws were wrongly issued. Of those where an individual declined to pay and were prosecuted in open court, 25% were found to be wrongly issued. Giving evidence to parliament, barrister Kirsty Brimelow said it was likely that thousands of FPNs had been incorrectly issued. There were reports of hate incidents against Italian and Chinese persons, and a Singaporean student was assaulted in London in an attack that police linked to COVID-19 fears. In addition there were reports of young people deliberately coughing and spitting in the faces of others, including an incident involving health workers. On 9 May, police broke up an anti-lockdown protest in London consisting of around 40 people. It was thought to be the first such protest in the UK, following protests in other nations. It was reported that around 60 protests had been planned on the weekend of 16 May, with police saying that they were preparing to break them up. Protests took place in London and Southampton, with several protesters arrested and fined at the London demonstration. In October, police broke up a wedding with 100 guests at the

Tudor Rose, Southall The Tudor Rose is a nightclub, live music venue and former cinema in Southall, London Borough of Ealing, Ealing, London. The premises opened in 1910 as the Southall Electric Theatre, and renamed to the Gem Cinema the following year, with a 500 ca ...

, breaking social isolation laws. A police spokesman said the owner could be fined £10,000.

Fraud

Local councils found fake goods being sold including testing kits, face masks and hand sanitiser. There had also been reports of scams involving the replacement school meals scheme and incidents of people posing as government officials, council staff or IT workers. During the contact tracing app trial on the Isle of Wight the

Chartered Trading Standards Institute The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) is a professional association which represents and trains trading standards professionals working in local authorities, business and consumer sectors and in central government in the UK and overseas ...

found evidence of a

phishing Phishing is a type of social engineering where an attacker sends a fraudulent (e.g., spoofed, fake, or otherwise deceptive) message designed to trick a person into revealing sensitive information to the attacker or to deploy malicious softwar ...

scam. In the scam recipients would receive a text stating that they had been in contact with someone with COVID-19 and were directed to a website to input their personal details.

Courts and prisons

On 17 March, trials lasting longer than three days were postponed until May in England and Wales, Those cases already running would continue in the hope of reaching a conclusion. The government released specific guidance to prisons in the event of COVID-19 symptoms or cases, specifically the rule that "any prisoner or detainee with a new, continuous cough or a high temperature should be placed in

protective isolation Protective isolation or reverse isolation denotes the practices used for protecting vulnerable persons for contracting an infection. When people with weakened immune systems are exposed to organisms, it could lead to infection and serious complicati ...

for 7days". There are around 83,000 prisoners in England and Wales. On 24 March, the

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

announced that prison visits would be suspended and that inmates would be confined to their cells. In order to maintain communication between prisoners and their families, the government promised 900 secure phones to 55 prisons, with calls being monitored and time-limited. In a committee meeting on the same day, Justice Secretary

Robert Buckland Sir Robert James Buckland (born 22 September 1968) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Wales from July to October 2022. He previously served as Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor from 2019 to 2021. A me ...

suggested that 50 pregnant inmates might be given early release, and another 9,000 inmates awaiting trial could be transferred to bail hostels. On 14 April, the Ministry of Justice ordered 500 modular buildings, reportedly adapted from shipping containers, to provide additional single prison cell accommodation at seven prisons: HMPs North Sea Camp, Littlehey, Hollesley Bay, Highpoint,

Moorland Moorland or moor is a type of habitat found in upland areas in temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands and montane grasslands and shrublands biomes, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils. Moorland, nowadays, generally ...

, Lindholme and

Humber The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between th ...

. Following a COVID-19 case in HMP Manchester, public services think tank

Reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill#The Yorkshire Associati ...

called for the release of 2,305 "low-risk" offenders on short sentences to reduce the risk of COVID-19 on the prison population. Former justice secretary

echoed similar sentiments, citing the "churn" of prisoners going in and out of prison as a risk. Up to 4,000 prisoners in England and Wales are to be released.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

's Europe Deputy Director of Research said that authorities in UK should consider releasing those who are more vulnerable to COVID-19. On 18 March, the first COVID-19 case was reported within the UK prison population. The prisoner, who had been serving time in

HMP Manchester HM Prison Manchester is a Category A and B men's prison in Manchester, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. It is still commonly referred to as Strangeways, which was its former official name derived from the area in which it is ...

(commonly referred to as Strangeways), was moved to a hospital. While no other prisoners or staff tested positive for the virus, thirteen prisoners and four members of staff were put into isolation as a precaution. On 26 March, it was reported that an 84-year-old sex offender had died from COVID-19 on 22 March at HMP Littlehey in Cambridgeshire, becoming the first inmate in the UK to die from the virus. On 28 April, Public Health England had identified around 2,000 "possible/probable" and confirmed COVID-19 cases; outbreaks had occurred in 75 different institutions, with 35 inmates treated in hospital and 15 deaths.

Aviation

From the latter half of January,

Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...

received additional clinical support and tightened surveillance of the three direct flights it receives from Wuhan every week; each were to be met by a Port Health team. Later, airlines including

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a populati ...

and

Ryanair Ryanair is an Irish ultra low-cost carrier founded in 1984. It is headquartered in Swords, Dublin, Ireland and has its primary operational bases at Dublin and London Stansted airports. It forms the largest part of the Ryanair Holdings family ...

announced a number of flight cancellations for March. On 25 March,

London City Airport London City Airport is a regional airport in London, England. It is located in the Royal Docks in the Borough of Newham, approximately east of the City of London and east of Canary Wharf. These are the twin centres of London's financial ...

announced it would temporarily close due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Heathrow Airport closed one runway from 6April, while

Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after H ...

closed one of its two terminals, and said its runway would open for scheduled flights only between 2:00pm and 10:00pm.

Public transport

On 20 March,

Southeastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

became the first

train operating company A train operating company (TOC) is a business operating Passenger Trains, passenger trains on the Rail transport in Great Britain, railway system of Great Britain under the collective National Rail brand. TOCs have existed since the Privatisation ...

to announce a reduced timetable, which would come into use from 23 March. On 19 March, the Stagecoach Supertram light rail network in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

announced that they would be switching to a modified Sunday service from 23 March until further notice. Local bus operators

First South Yorkshire First South Yorkshire is a major bus operator providing bus services within and across South Yorkshire. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup. History In 1989, South Yorkshire Transport introduced the ''Mainline'' brand on certain bus routes aro ...

and

Stagecoach Yorkshire Stagecoach Yorkshire is an operating division of Stagecoach Group. It was formed in 2005 to take over the former Traction Group fleets in Yorkshire by Stagecoach Group, which took over Traction from Frank Carter on 14 December 2005; Yorkshi ...

, which operate across the same area, announced that they would also be switching to a reduced timetable from 23 March.

National Express National Express Group is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Birmingham, England. It operates bus, coach, train and tram services in the United Kingdom, Ireland (National Express operates Eurolines in conjunction ...

suspended all its long-distance coach services from 6April. TfL Face Covering Sign

Transport for London (TfL) services were reduced in stages. All Night Overground and

Night Tube The Night Tube and London Overground Night Service, often referred to simply as Night Tube, is a service pattern on the London Underground ("Tube") and London Overground systems which provides through-the-night services on Friday and Saturday ni ...

services, as well as all services on the

Waterloo & City line The Waterloo & City line, colloquially known as The Drain, is a London Underground shuttle line that runs between Waterloo and Bank with no intermediate stops. Its primary traffic consists of commuters from south-west London, Surrey and Hampsh ...

, were suspended from 20 March, and 40 tube stations were closed on the same day. The

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...

and TfL urged people to use public transport only if absolutely essential, so it could be used by critical workers. In April, TfL trialled changes encouraging passengers to board London buses by the middle or rear doors to lessen the risks to drivers, after the deaths of 14 TfL workers including nine drivers. This measure was extended to all routes on 20 April, and passengers were no longer required to pay, so they did not need to use the card reader near the driver. On 22 April, London mayor Sadiq Khan warned that TfL could run out of money to pay staff by the end of April unless the government stepped in. Since London entered lockdown on 23 March, Tube journeys had fallen by 95% and bus journeys by 85%. On 7 May, it was reported that TfL had requested £2 billion in state aid to keep services running until September 2020. on 12 May, TfL documents warned it expected to lose £4bn due to the pandemic and said it needed £3.2bn to balance a proposed emergency budget for 2021, having lost 90% of its overall income. Without an agreement with the government, deputy mayor for transport

Heidi Alexander Heidi Alexander (born 17 April 1975) is a British politician who served as Deputy Mayor of London for Transport from 2018 to 2021. A member of the Labour Party, she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Lewisham East from 2010 to 2018. Alexander ...

said TfL might have to issue a '

section 114 notice The Local Government Finance Act 1988 introduced significant reforms to local taxation in the United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland). The old systems of rates were replaced by the Community Charge (for individuals) and business rates (for bus ...

' – the equivalent of a public body becoming bankrupt. On 14 May, the UK Government agreed £1.6bn in emergency funding to keep Tube and bus services running until September. In April,

Govia Thameslink Railway Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) is a train operating company that operates the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (TSGN) rail franchise in England. Within the franchise, GTR runs the Thameslink, Great Northern, Southern (Govia Thameslin ...

re-branded three trains with special liveries to show its support for the NHS and the 200,000 essential workers commuting on GTR's network every week.

British Armed Forces

The COVID-19 pandemic affected British military deployments at home and abroad. Training exercises, including those in Canada and Kenya, had to be cancelled to free up personnel for the COVID Support Force. The British training mission in Iraq, part of

Operation Shader Operation Shader is the operational code name given to the contribution of the United Kingdom in the ongoing military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The operation involves the British Army providing ground s ...

, had to be down-scaled. An air base supporting this military operation also confirmed nine cases of COVID-19. The British Army paused face-to-face recruitment and basic training operations, instead conducting them virtually. Training locations, such as

Royal Military Academy Sandhurst The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial officer training centre. It is located in the town of ...

and HMS ''Raleigh'', had to adapt their passing out parades. Cadets involved were made to stand apart in combat dress and there were no spectators in the grandstands. Ceremonial duties, such as the

Changing of the Guard Guard mounting, changing the guard, or the changing of the guard, is a formal ceremony in which sentries performing ceremonial guard duties at important institutions are relieved by a new batch of sentries. The ceremonies are often elaborate a ...

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...

and the Gun Salute for the

Queen's Official Birthday The King's Official Birthday (alternatively the Queen's Official Birthday when the monarch is female) is the selected day in the United Kingdom and most Commonwealth realms on which the birthday of the monarch is officially celebrated in those ...

were either scaled-down or cancelled. The Royal Air Force suspended all displays of its teams and bands, with some replaced by virtual displays. The British Army deployed two experts to

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

to help counter disinformation around the pandemic. Elsewhere in defence, air shows, including the

Royal International Air Tattoo The Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) is the world's largest military air show, held annually in July, usually at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, England in support of The Royal Air Force Charitable Trust. The show typically attracts a t ...

RAF Fairford Royal Air Force Fairford or more simply RAF Fairford is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station in Gloucestershire, England which is currently a standby airfield and therefore not in everyday use. Its most prominent use in recent years has been as an ...

, were cancelled. Civilian airports, including

Birmingham Airport Birmingham Airport , formerly ''Birmingham International Airport'', is an international airport located east-southeast of Birmingham city centre, west-northwest of Coventry slightly north of Bickenhill village, in the Metropolitan Borou ...

, were used to practice transferring COVID-19 patients to local hospitals via helicopter. Several defence and aerospace companies contributed to the national effort to produce more ventilators.

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. ...

, the country's largest defence company, also loaned its

Warton Aerodrome Warton Aerodrome is located in Warton village on the Fylde in Lancashire, England. The aerodrome is west of Preston, Lancashire, UK. Today the airfield is a major assembly and testing facility of BAE Systems Military Air & Information. It ...

site to be used as a temporary morgue. The Government's defence and security review, named the

Integrated Review The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy, often known as the Integrated Review, and titled as ''Global Britain in a Competitive Age'', was a review carried out by the British government led by Boris Johnson into th ...

, was delayed. The armed forces assisted in the transportation of COVID-19 patients in some of the country's remotest regions, such as

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

and the

Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly (; kw, Syllan, ', or ) is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, is the most southerly point in Britain, being over further south than the most southerly point of the ...

. On 23 March 2020,

Joint Helicopter Command Joint Helicopter Command (JHC) is a tri-service organisation uniting battlefield military helicopters of the British Armed Forces for command and coordination purposes. History Background Over the years, the grouping of all battlefield suppo ...

began assisting the COVID-19 relief effort by transporting people and supplies. Helicopters were based at

RAF Leeming Royal Air Force Leeming or RAF Leeming is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located near Leeming, North Yorkshire, England. It was opened in 1940 and was jointly used by the RAF and the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Between 1950 and 1991, it ...

to cover Northern England and Scotland, whilst helicopters based at

RAF Benson Royal Air Force Benson or RAF Benson is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located at Benson, near Wallingford, in South Oxfordshire, England. It is a front-line station and home to the RAF's fleet of Westland Puma HC2 support helicopters, us ...

RAF Odiham RAF Odiham is a Royal Air Force station situated a little to the south of the village of Odiham in Hampshire, England. It is the home of the Royal Air Force's heavy lift helicopter, the Chinook, and of the King’s Helicopter Flight (TKHF) . I ...

and

RNAS Yeovilton Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, or RNAS Yeovilton, (HMS ''Heron'') is an airfield of the Royal Navy and British Army, sited a few miles north of Yeovil, Somerset. It is one of two active Fleet Air Arm bases (the other being RNAS Culdrose) ...

supported the Midlands and Southern England. On 24 March 2020, the armed forces helped plan and construct a field hospital at the

ExCeL London ExCeL London (an abbreviation for Exhibition Centre London) is an exhibition centre, international convention centre and former hospital in the Custom House, Newham, Custom House area of London Borough of Newham, Newham, East London. It is sit ...

conference centre, named

NHS Nightingale Hospital London The NHS Nightingale Hospital London was the first of the NHS Nightingale Hospitals, temporary hospitals set up by NHS England for the COVID-19 pandemic. It was housed in the ExCeL London convention centre in East London. The hospital was rapid ...

. Further critical care field hospitals were later built with military assistance in Birmingham, Manchester, Harrogate, Bristol, Exeter, Washington and Glasgow. These hospitals were staffed by military medics, alongside the NHS.

References

{{COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories, state=collapsed Disease outbreaks in England 2020 in England 2021 in England Articles containing video clips 2022 in England

Timeline

Timeline of measures

September 2019 – January 2020 : Suspected cases

January 2020

February 2020

March 2020

April 2020

May 2020

June 2020

July 2020

August 2020

September 2020

October 2020

November 2020

December 2020

January 2021

February 2021

March 2021

April 2021

May 2021

June 2021

July 2021

August 2021

September 2021

October 2021

November 2021

December 2021

January 2022

February 2022

March 2022

April 2022

May 2022

June 2022

Hospital death statistics

2020

2021

ONS data

Registered deaths

2020

2021

2022

Covid-19 deaths by place of occurrence

13 March – 4 September 2020

11 September 2020 – 1 January 2021

2 January 2021 – present

COVID-19 deaths by age

Vaccination programme

Regulations and legislation

Local lockdown regulations

Tier regulations

Travel restrictions

Impact

Finance and the economy

National health service response

Appointments and self-isolation

Beds

Communication

Law and order

Fraud

Courts and prisons

Aviation

Public transport

British Armed Forces

See also

References