Covid timeline: The weeks before the first UK lockdown | Corona Virus

[ad_1]

December 31, 2019: China alerts the World Health Organization of dozens of cases of “viral pneumonia” in downtown Wuhan.

January 11, 2020: China announced the first death of a 61-year-old man in Wuhan, from the mysterious new disease. At least seven other patients are in critical condition.

January 23: China ordered a lockdown of millions of people in Wuhan and Hubei province as the country’s death toll reached 18.

A man crosses an empty highway on February 3 in Wuhan, Hubei Province. Photo: Stringer/Getty Images

January 24: UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock chairs the first COBRA meeting on Covid. England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, says the risk to the British public is low.

January 30: A Chinese couple from Wuhan contracted the disease on a trip to Italy and were confirmed as the country’s first two cases. The risk level from the virus in the UK has been raised from low to moderate as the World Health Organization declares a global health emergency.

January 31: Two cases of Covid are confirmed in the UK.

February 2: The UK government recommends regular hand washing, but the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) warns against restricting mass gatherings

February 10: Public Health England releases coronavirus tests to 12 laboratories in the UK.

February 22: The number of cases in Italy increased, leading to the closure of the northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto.

Corona Virus: Isolated Italians sing from balconies to raise morale – video

February 25: Sage advises that social distancing and school closures can reduce transmission by 50 to 60%.

February 28: A man quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan becomes the first confirmed British death from Covid.

March 3: Boris Johnson boasts that he shook hands with “everyone” on a recent hospital visit. On the same day, Sage warned “against greetings such as handshakes and hugs, given the evidence that exists about the importance of hand hygiene.”

Boris Johnson said weeks before he was diagnosed with the Corona virus – video: ‘I shook hands with everyone’

March 4: A woman in her 70s with underlying health issues becomes the first person to die with Covid in the UK. Cases are more than 100.

March 11: The World Health Organization declares Covid-19 a pandemic.

17 March: Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser, tells MPs that keeping the total number of Covid-19 deaths under 20,000 would be a “good outcome”.

March 18: Boris Johnson announces indefinite closure of schools, with A and GCSE levels scrapped, to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

A dashboard displays a message asking people to “stay home” in Manchester, on March 27, 2020. Photo: Oli Scarf/AFP via Getty Images

March 19: Johnson says the UK can “turn the tide” on the disease within 12 weeks and “send packages of coronavirus”.

Coronavirus: Boris Johnson says UK can ‘turn the tide’ within 12 weeks – VIDEO

In the following days and weeks, images show thousands of tourists waiting to board flights to their home countries as the closures were announced.

Thousands of tourists wait to board their flights back to their countries of origin at Lanzarote Airport in the Spanish Canary Islands. Photo: Javier Fuentes/EPA

March 23: Boris Johnson announces the UK’s first national lockdown. People may only leave their homes for very limited reasons and the police are given powers to enforce the rules. The leave scheme introduced by Rishi Sunak has been widely hailed as an important intervention to protect jobs during the lockdown.

March 26: Dr Jenny Harris, chief executive of the UK’s Health and Security Agency, said testing and contact tracing were no longer “appropriate”. She adds that the WHO’s “test, test, test” appeal is directed at least developed countries.

A dove walks through an empty and closed Greenwich Market in London on April 28, 2020. Photo: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Getty Images

[ad_2]