COVID Crisis in the UK
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More than one hundred thousand people have now died in Great Britain as a result of the global pandemic. That number continues to grow. One hundred thousand grieving families. One hundred thousand empty chairs at the dinner table. The last year has been one of grief, loss and hardship. It has also been a year that brought stories of resilience, a growing sense of community and hope. To try and comprehend the enormity of what we are living through, Sky News has created one of the most comprehensive timelines to date of the COVID crisis in the UK. It runs to almost 130 detailed pages and gathers together hundreds of statistics and front-line stories, charting the virus as it swept through our hospitals, our care homes and our lives. It was a working document put together by our journalists and used by our teams as they researched stories for a special series of programmes broadcast on Sky News on 9th, 10th and 11th February 2021 called COVID Crisis: Learning the Lessons. We are publishing it here so everyone can use it; whether you’re interested in seeing our work behind the scenes, or whether you are involved in your own analysis of the UK’s response to the pandemic. Where links are to Sky News stories, the timeline represents contemporaneous news reporting. For example, the first British death from COVID that we knew of at the time was on 28th February 2020. We now know an earlier COVID-related death happened on 30th January 2020. Every effort has been made to avoid typos and omissions; however, some may have inevitably crept into such a long document. Compiled by David Mercer, Nick Stylianou, Ganesh Rao, Jack Taylor and Jamie Roberton. Quick Links December 2019 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 Key SAGE (dark green) ➔ Summary of meeting Business/economic/travel measure (dark red) PPE/ventilators/medical equipment (dark blue) Vaccines (dark magenta) Testing, tracking and tracing (dark purple) Statistics (dark orange) International event (dark yellow) Sourced Link 2 8th December 2019 ● A patient in the Chinese city of Wuhan seeks medical help for pneumonia-like symptoms. 31st December 2019 ● Health authorities in Wuhan report a string of pneumonia-like cases in the city. 1st January 2020 ● The World Health Organisation requests information from Chinese authorities on the reported cluster of atypical pneumonia cases in Wuhan. ● The seafood market - Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market - identified as a suspected centre of the outbreak is closed. 3rd January ● Chinese officials provide information to WHO on the cluster of cases of ‘viral pneumonia of unknown cause’ identified in Wuhan. 8th January ● The cluster of mysterious pneumonia cases in Wuhan is identified as a new coronavirus. 9th January ● First death from a new coronavirus reported in Wuhan after a 61-year-old man dies. The death was first reported on 11 January. 12th January ● WHO says “there is no clear evidence that the virus passes easily from person to person.” 13th January ● Thailand reports its first case, a 61-year-old Chinese woman who had flown in from Wuhan. 16th January ● Japan reports its first case, a man in his 30s who had travelled to Wuhan. 20th January ● South Korea confirms its first case. 20th January ● A study from London's Imperial College suggests there could be more than 1,723 cases of the new virus in Wuhan alone - after health officials in the city confirm a total of 62 cases. 3 21st January ● The US, Hong Kong and Taiwan confirm their first cases. 22nd January - “CONTAIN” ● Public Health England and the Department of Health revise the risk to the UK from "very low" to "low" but insist the UK is “well prepared”. ● UK enters “Contain” strategy according to the Coronavirus Action Plan (published on 3rd March): detect early cases, follow up close contacts, and prevent the disease taking hold in this country for as long as is reasonably possible’. Ends on 12th March. SAGE 1 ➔ There is evidence of person-to-person transmission. It is unknown whether transmission is sustainable ➔ There is no evidence yet on whether individuals are infectious prior to showing symptoms ➔ NERVTAG does not advise port of entry screening, irrespective of the current limited understanding of the epidemiology (based on high false positives and false negatives) ➔ There are no practical preventative actions that HMG might undertake ahead of Chinese New Year (25 Jan) ➔ SAGE is unable to say at this stage whether it might be required to reconvene 23rd January ● First lockdown introduced in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, as residents confined to their homes and transport networks shut. (Broadcast report here) ● Foreign and Commonwealth Office advises against all but essential travel to Wuhan. ● Singapore confirms its first case. ● Transport Secretary Grant Shapps tells Sky News a "separate area" is being set up at Heathrow, as airports around the world step up screening of travellers arriving from affected regions at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak. ● China's stock markets suffer biggest single-day loss in months - CSI300 fell by 3.1%. 24th January ● The first cases of coronavirus in Europe are confirmed as France declares three infections ● Nepal, Vietnam and Malaysia confirm their first cases. ● UK business growth hits 16-month high, according to IHS Markit index ● First COBRA meeting on COVID-19- Boris Johnson does not attend ● Government tries to track down 2,000 passengers recently arrived in the UK from Wuhan for testing. 25th January ● Foreign and Commonwealth Office advises against all travel to China's Hubei Province. ● Australia and Canada confirm their first cases ● A doctor in Hubei is the first medical professional who treated coronavirus patients to die with the virus. 4 27th January ● Germany, Sri Lanka and Cambodia confirm their first cases. ● Retail sector in the UK was already in decline, with nearly 10,000 jobs lost in January ● FTSE reacts as coronavirus fears intensify. 28th January ● Foreign and Commonwealth Office updates its travel advisory, advising against all but essential travel to the rest of mainland China. ● Travellers returning to UK from Wuhan made to quarantine for 14 days ● Starbucks shuts half of its stores in China; it had 4,000 outlets in January in China SAGE 2 ➔ On testing... Specific test should be ready by the end of week, with capacity to run 400 to 500 tests per day. Currently it would not be useful to test asymptomatic individuals as a negative test result could not be interpreted with certainty ➔ On symptoms... varied, from mild coughing to fever and pneumonia. Uncertainty regarding clinical symptoms for individuals with mild illness. There is limited evidence of asymptomatic transmission, but early indications imply some is occurring ➔ Reasonable worst-case scenario - similar to an influenza pandemic where no vaccine or specific treatment is available. The RWCS for the UK should be based on a reproductive number of 2.5 (middle of current estimates) and should assume that some of those who have returned from China are infectious 29th January ● British Airways suspends all flights to and from mainland China with immediate effect, due to the ongoing coronavirus threat. ● Finland and the UAE confirm their first cases. 30th January ● The coronavirus outbreak is declared a global public health emergency by the World Health Organisation, with cases in 18 countries outside China and 171 deaths worldwide. ● The UK's first coronavirus death is thought to have occurred when 84-year-old Peter Attwood, from Chatham in Kent, died in hospital. His death is only confirmed to be COVID-19 related by a coroner months later. ● German scientists find evidence of asymptomatic transmission. ● India and the Philippines confirm their first cases, while the US reports the first person-to- person transmission in the country. 31st January ● First two cases in the UK are confirmed - including a University of York student ● Russia and Italy also confirm their first cases ● Britons evacuated from Wuhan arrive at a hospital in the Wirral where they will spend 14 days in quarantine 5 ● UK joins EU member states and commission officials to discuss “the cluster of pneumonia cases associated with novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China”. Four countries indicate a potential need for personal protective equipment (PPE) “in case of an expanding situation in the EU”. They do not include the UK. 2nd February ● First coronavirus death reported outside China - a 44-year-old man from the Philippines. ● Construction of a new hospital in Wuhan is completed in eight days. ● Government issues handwashing advice. 3rd February SAGE 3 ➔ SAGE estimates that if the UK reduces imported infections by 50%, this would maybe delay the onset of any epidemic in the UK by about 5 days; 75% would maybe buy 10 additional days; 90% maybe buys 15 additional days; 95%+ maybe buys a month ➔ Only a month of additional preparation time for the NHS would be meaningful. It would also be meaningful if the outbreak were pushed out of usual winter respiratory season ➔ To prevent imported infections along these lines would require draconian and coordinated measures, because direct flights from China ➔ Not the only route for infected individuals to enter the UK ➔ The scale of the epidemic in China could be in the region of 200,000 to 300,000 cases (On Feb 3, more than 19,000 cases had been confirmed globally, with 13,522 cases in Hubei) ➔ An extra month for the NHS and wider HMG to prepare for a WN-CoV epidemic - and to reduce the pressures arising from seasonal influenza – would offer a significant advantage ● Government announces £20 million to fund vaccines for coronavirus and other infectious diseases.