COVID-19 National and Local timeline

By Peter Warrington

Timeline – Key

Orange – COVID-related events internationally

Blue – COVID-related events across the UK

Green – COVID-related events in Cambridge and Cambridgeshire

Timeline

• October or November 2019 – Rough timespan where COVID arose¹

• 1^st December 2019 – First confirmed case of COVID-19 worldwide (Wuhan, China)²

• 16^th December 2019 – First documented hospital admissions for COVID-192²

• 31^st December 2019 - Wuhan Municipal Health Commission alerts community of signs of viral pneumonia outbreak – The World Health Organisation and US CDC become aware at the same time³

• 3^rd January 2020 – US is formally notified on the outbreak and US National Security Council warns it’s a very big deal⁴

• 9^th January – First death due to COVID-19⁵

• 13^th January – First case of COVID-19 outside of China (Thailand)⁶

• 20^th January – US reports first case of COVID-19⁷

• 22^nd January – The risk to the UK population on Coronavirus is assessed as low (raised from very low)⁸

• 23^rd January – The Foreign and Commonwealth Office advises against all but essential travel to the city of Wuhan⁹

• 31^st January – First 2 cases in the UK are reported¹⁰

• 3^rd March - Paul Cosford, a medical director at Public Health England, said widespread transmission of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom was "highly likely"¹¹

• 10^th March – First Coronavirus case in Cambridgeshire is reported¹²

• 12^th March – 590 total cases reported in the UK¹³, risk level is raised to high and Government moves from “Contain” phase to “delay”¹⁴

• 16^th March – Boris Johnson advises everyone in the UK against “non-essential” travel and contact with others, suggesting people should avoid clubs and theatres and work from home if possible, deaths reach 35¹⁵

• 20^th March – Schools close¹⁶ and the closure of public venues, such as pubs, restaurants, gyms, leisure centres, nightclubs, theatres and cinemas is announced.¹⁷ Furlough scheme is also announced.¹⁸

• 21^st March – First COVID death in Cambridgeshire¹⁹

• 23^rd March – The national stay-at-home order is introduced²⁰ The Government “Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme” is introduced providing loans of up to £5 million where interest payments are covered by the government for the first 12 months.²¹

• 27^th March – It is announced that Boris has tested positive for COVID²²

• 11^th April – The number of people in London hospitals for COVID-19 reaches it’s peak²³

• 20^th April – The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme opens to apply for grants.²⁴

• 17^th and 30^th of April – Cambridgeshire records it’s highest single-day increase in deaths due to Coronavirus (10)¹⁹

• 1^st June - No prohibitions on leaving home, rule of 6 introduced. ²⁵ Phased reopening of primary schools begins.²⁶

• 10^th June - support bubbles are introduced, allowing people living alone to spend time in another household.²⁷

• 15^th June – Most public facing retail is allowed to reopen.²⁸ And passengers on public transport must now use a face covering.²⁹

• 17^th June – Premier league football returns³⁰

• 4^th July – 1m+ introduced, pubs, restaurants, hairdressers can reopen. Two households can meet indoors.³¹

• 8^th July – The “Eat out to help out scheme” is announced, Government subsidising food and soft drinks at cafes, pubs and restaurants at 50% up to £10 per person. It was available from the 3^rd to the 31^st August.³²

• 13^th July – Salons can reopen³³

• 17^th July – Boris announces plan for “significant return to normality” by Christmas³⁴

• 24^th July – Face coverings must be worn in shops³⁵

• 6^th August – 50 million face masks will not be used by the Government because they do not fasten properly³⁶

• 14^th August – “Office for National Statistics figures indicate cases of COVID-19 appear to have stabilised in England following a small increase in July, and despite local clusters of cases.”³⁷ (quotation Wikipedia)

• 17^th August - The UK government announces that A Level and GCSE students in England will have their results based on teachers' assessments following uproar over grades.³⁸

• 20^th August – GCSE results returned³⁹ (followed by the head of ofqual resigning on the 25^th)⁴⁰

• 1^st September – Beginning this week, students return to school nationally⁴¹

• 18^th September – “The Office for National Statistics says that new COVID-19 cases may have reached 6,000 a day in England, with a clear rise in cases in those under the age of 35.” 'Widespread virus growth across the country' – Government advisers⁴² (quotation Wikipedia) Could be partly because of COVID mutation, details of which published December? – Accounted for around 1/6 cases on the 1^st October⁴³ - Needs more research

• 6^th October – University term begins at Cambridge university

• 12^th October – “It is confirmed that GCSE and A Level exams will go ahead in 2021, but with reduced content on some papers, and with a start date pushed back by three weeks.”⁴⁴

• 14^th October – “COVID-tier regulations come into force” Cambridge is in ‘Medium’ tier, meaning pubs and restaurants close at 10pm, and people can meet indoors or outdoors as long as they follow the rule of 6⁴⁵

• 1^st November – Month long “Stay at home” lockdown begins, schools remain open⁴⁶

• 10^th November – 500 pupils sent home at Cottenham Primary⁴⁷

• 16^th November – “Landmark Cambridge Lion Yard nightclub Ballare shuts its doors for good after 40 years” – Cambridge News⁴⁸

• 20^th November – “A BBC investigation has found that NHS Test and Trace is reaching as little as half of those identified as close contacts in some areas.”⁴⁹ (quotation Wikipedia)

• 25^th November – “Addenbrooke's Hospital: Patients 'at risk of harm' as waiting times soar to second worst in England - A leaked memo warns elective surgery may have to be suspended over the winter - A leaked staff memo warns the situation is "unsafe" and could cause "significant harm" to patients.” – Cambridge news⁵⁰

• 30^th November – “Coronavirus cases surge in Cambs city as county prepares for Tier 2 restrictions”- Cambridge News⁵¹

• 2^nd December – 3 tier system comes into effect and November lockdown ends, Cambridgeshire in tier 2 “high alert” – One household indoors⁵²

• 3^rd – 9^th December – Window for students to return home⁵³

• 8^th December – “Infection rates are rising in several Cambridgeshire districts” – Cambridge News⁵⁴

• 11^th December – “Figures from the Office for National Statistics for the week ending 5 December indicate COVID cases in England are continuing to fall, apart from in London and the East of England.”⁵⁵ (quotation Wikipedia)

• 15^th December – “Two year groups sent home as outbreak hits Cambourne Village College” – Cambridge News⁵⁶

• 16^th December – “New coronavirus variant is identified in UK” - BMJ⁵⁷

• 17^th December – Cambridgeshire is moved into tier 3 ‘Very high’, meaning no pubs unless they operate as a restaurant with a ‘substantial meal’, meeting outside only in certain public places.⁵⁸

• 18^th December – Boris Johnson expresses concern that COVID cases have risen “very much”, although “hopes to avoid” a national lockdown⁵⁹

  • Reports “nearly 90% of hospital beds in England are full” and that health trusts “face the prospect of suspending non-COVID treatment”⁶⁰

• 20^th December – London, South east and other parts of the East of England go into new Tier 4 restrictions, the “stay at home message” returning for these areas, including during Christmas.⁶¹

• 24^th December – ONS figures indicate 1 in 85 people in England have COVID⁶²

• 25^th December – In tier 3 and lower areas like Cambridgeshire, maximum of 2 other households are allowed in one household for the day – although the Government started advising against this leading to Christmas day.⁶³

• 26^th December – Cambridgeshire moves into Tier 4.⁶⁴

• 28^th December – More people are being treated in hospital for COVID nationally than in the previous peak.⁶⁵

• 29^th December – Claims COVID patients in London could be transferred to hospitals in Yorkshire as a result of capacity issues.⁶⁶

• 30^th December – Secondary schools and colleges are announced to open two weeks later than anticipated.⁶⁷

  • “Cambridge Market shut down as Covid spreads rapidly through city” – Cambridge News⁶⁸

• 31^st December – NHS Nightingale is reactivated and placed on standby.⁶⁹

  • “The Royal London Hospital is in ‘disaster medicine mode’ and ‘no longer providing high standard critical care’, according to an internal memo.”⁷⁰ (copied in full from Wikipedia)

• 2^nd January – Teaching unions tell primary school staff it is unsafe to return to school.⁷¹

• 3^rd January – Boris says there is "no doubt in my mind that schools are safe"⁷² but states that restrictions are "probably about to get tougher".⁷³ Kier Stammer calls for a national lockdown to be announced within 24 hours.⁷⁴

• 4^th January – Boris in a televised address, announces new restrictions amounting to a return to the “stay at home” order, including the move of schools to all online learning. Summer exams were also cancelled.⁷⁵

• 5^th January – “Government fails promise to give 1,000 disadvantaged Cambs children laptops for home learning” – Cambridge News⁷⁶

From this point, this document is updated less frequently, to reflect important events.

• 8^th January – Mayor of London declares a “major incident” claiming COVID is “out of control” and that they “could run out of beds”⁷⁷

• 9^th January – The Telegraph reports that Children “referred to the NHS with serious mental health problems has reached a record high”. Dr Bernadka Dubicka writes that:

“There will be a sense of loss as the time spent learning and preparing for exams has come to nothing. Landmark occasions in the lives of these young people will be lost; never to be experienced by hundreds of thousands of children”⁷⁸

• 13th January –

“Cambridgeshire hospitals treating more Covid patients now than during first wave”

“Cambridgeshire is going through a “very challenging time” in the course of the coronavirus pandemic, the county’s public health director [Dr Liz Robin] has said.”

“Dr Robin said there has been a ‘particularly sharp rise’ in the number of Covid-19 patients being treated at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge”⁷⁹

• 17^th January – Dominic Raab, Foreign Secretary says that “Our target is that by September to have offered all the adult population a first dose"⁸⁰

• 19^th January – The ONS publishes the results of its antibody survey conducted in December that revealed that it estimates that 1 in 8 people in England has COVID antibodies present, suggesting prior infection by the virus.⁸¹

• 27^th January – Boris Johnson reveals in a Downing Street news conference that the earliest date the Government is considering reopening schools is the 8^th March.⁸²

• 31^st January - Public Health England's Covid strategy chief Dr Susan Hopkins says in a BBC interview that lockdown easing must happen "very slowly, very cautiously"⁸³

• 1^st February – NHS England confirms that a COVID vaccine has been offered to all older care home residents.⁸⁴

• 6^th February – “Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge told staff last week that it would not risk wasting the Pfizer vaccine by defrosting a box of 1,170 doses because not enough workers had signed up for their first jab.”⁸⁵

• 10^th February – 4 English councils are given emergency government funding, including Peterborough in Cambridgeshire.⁸⁶

• 11^th February – NHS England releases statistics showing “nearly 225,000 people in England have now waited more than 12 months for routine hospital treatment - the highest number since April 2008”⁸⁷

• 14^th February – “More than 1,000 people have now died from coronavirus in Cambridgeshire”⁸⁸

• 16^th February – Peterborough’s “infection rate of 275.9 has placed it as the eighth worst-affected area by the deadly coronavirus”⁸⁹

• 17^th February – Boris Johnsons claims that it is “absolutely right” to take a "data not dates" approach to leaving lockdown.⁹⁰

• 18^th February – “Addenbrooke's to restart urgent surgery from next week as hospital 'de-escalates Covid response'”⁹¹

• 19^th February – A joint statement by teaching unions claims that it would “reckless” if all pupils returned on the 8^th March.⁹²

• 21^st February – Cambridgehsire Live conducted a county-wide survey: “In all, 44% of those who answered said they were seeing a negative impact on both their own and their children’s mental health. A further 10% said lockdown was taking its toll on their children, while 10% said the impact was on them.”

“Parents generally don’t think schools should reopen before Easter if infection rates are still high - 69% in Cambridgeshire said no”

“In Cambridgeshire, 37% said they would be happy to send their child back [when they reopen] - but 39% said they would not.”⁹³

• 22^nd February – Boris Johnson unveils his lockdown recovery “roadmap”, outlining how:

  • From the 8^th March schools would open (as he had suggested earlier)

    • With mass lateral flow testing for secondary and sixth form students.

    • The leader of the Association of School and College Leaders however warns that bringing all students back simultaneously "runs the risk of increasing the rate of infection and prolonging the damaging cycle of stop-start schooling"⁹⁴

  • From the 29^th March the rule of 6 would return

  • Starting 12^th April at the earliest non-essential retail, beer gardens, hairdressers and other businesses could reopen.

  • Starting 17^th May at the earliest most social contact rules would be lifted and that two households could meet indoors

  • And that from 21^st June at the earliest all restrictions could have ended

He describes this plan as “cautious but irreversible”.⁹⁵

• 24^th February – Gavin Williamson announces £700m funding to expand tutoring schemes to help students with missed study⁹⁶ saying that “No child's prospects should be blighted by pandemic”⁹⁷

• 24^th February – “Peterborough now second worst-hit Covid hotspot in England after prison outbreak”⁹⁸

• 24^th February – “During November and December 2020, [Peterborough City] hospital bed capacity was routinely above 90% often reaching 97% which impacted on the emergency department’s (ED) ability to transfer patients into the ward areas.”⁹⁹

• 25^th February – Ofqual confirms GCSE and A Level results in 2021 will be decided by teacher assessments, with exams being used at the discretion of individual schools.¹⁰⁰

• 25^th February – South Cambridgeshire has the lowest COVID-19 rate in Cambridgeshire (47.1 cases per 100,000), the 23^rd best in England.

• 2^nd March – 7,516/12,319 people were still claiming universal credit benefits in October and November after starting claims in April and May in Cambridgeshire.¹⁰¹

• 3^rd March – The 2021 budget is published, extending the Job Retention Scheme and Income Support Scheme to September 2021.¹⁰²

• 4^th March – “Across Cambridgeshire, more than 40,000 people have now tested positive for coronavirus since the outbreak of the pandemic as the county's death toll stands at more than 1,000.”

• 5^th March – “Hugging and kissing among 21 Covid breaches at Cambs pub run by town mayor” (Wisbech, Fenland)

  • ““I am genuinely shocked at this behaviour,” Cambs Lib Dem councillor Lucy Nethsingha tweeted earlier this week in response to a Private Eye report.”

• 8^th/10^th March – Scientists warn that Lateral Flow Tests used in schools are shown to lead to more false positive than positive results, where Schools Minister Vicky Ford says Government policy is that these results cannot be overruled by a more reliably PCR test, meaning students could miss out on school unnecessarily.^103,104

• 16^th March – School attendance returns to near pre-pandemic levels.¹⁰⁵

• 17^th March – An internal letter from NHS England to local health organisations warns of a "reduction in national inbound vaccines supply" and asks organisations to "ensure no further appointments are uploaded" to booking systems in April.¹⁰⁶

• 21^st March – “Infection rate rising in all parts of the county except one”¹⁰⁷

• 22^nd March – “According to Cambridge City Foodbank’s statistics, March 2020 saw a 37 per cent increase in need compared to March 2019, and April 2020 saw a staggering 80 per cent increase.” – Cambridge News¹⁰⁸

  • “huge numbers of people coming, far far more than we’ve ever had before”

• 23^rd March – 27/98 Cambridgeshire neighbourhoods have an infection rate of more than 100 per 100,000 people.¹⁰⁹

Sources

• Timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_COVID-19_pandemic

Accessed 23/11/2020

• Timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom (January–June 2020) - Wikipedia
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_COVID-19_pandemic_in_the_United_Kingdom_(January%E2%80%93June_2020)

Accessed 23/11/2020

• Timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in England (2020) - Wikipedia
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_COVID-19_pandemic_in_England_(2020)

  • Timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in England (2021) - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_COVID-19_pandemic_in_England_(2021)

• Government coronavirus data (CSV) for Cambridgeshire with fields: Cumulative cases by specimen date and cumulative deaths within 28 days of a positive case by death date (automatically downloads latest data)

https://api.coronavirus.data.gov.uk/v2/data?areaType=utla&areaCode=E10000003&metric=cumCasesBySpecimenDate&metric=cumDeaths28DaysByDeathDate&format=csv

• Exported to XLSX as of 23.11.2020, with graphs and formatting

• National statistics link:
  https://api.coronavirus.data.gov.uk/v2/data?areaType=overview&metric=cumCasesBySpecimenDate&metric=cumDeaths28DaysByDeathDate&format=csv

• Cases by specimen date by age demographic

Cambridgeshire: https://api.coronavirus.data.gov.uk/v2/data?areaType=utla&areaCode=E10000003&metric=newCasesBySpecimenDateAgeDemographics&format=csv
UK: https://api.coronavirus.data.gov.uk/v2/data?areaType=overview&metric=newCasesBySpecimenDateAgeDemographics&format=csv