Covid, war and the death of The Queen: Shropshire in the 2020s
Toby Neal is looking through the decades to mark the Shropshire Star's 60th anniversary. Today, the 2020s.
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The definitive story of the current decade remains to be written, but to say it started badly is an understatement.
In 2020 a pandemic gripped the world and was to take an appalling toll. According to the United Nations, there were just under 15 million excess deaths associated directly or indirectly with Covid-19 in 2020 and 2021.
But the impact was not measured solely by the huge number of fatalities. Normal human activity was halted as people were ordered to stay in their homes and, if possible, work from home, in an effort to stop the spread of the disease. Wearing of face masks in public became the norm, and schools were closed, hitting the social and educational development of children – the age group at the least risk from Covid.
There was a fear that the National Health Service would be overwhelmed in the face of the biggest public health crisis for over 100 years. There was a scramble to obtain protective clothing.
Staff were worked off their feet and doorstep clapping events were held to show the public’s appreciation of the NHS’s efforts.
As a result of the measures to fight Covid, the economy nosedived. Britain led the world in rolling out a vaccine which paved the way for a return to normal life, but the pandemic and the furlough scheme, which in effect paid people not to work, has had long term effects, one of which has been that hundreds of thousands of people have, voluntarily or otherwise, left the nation’s workforce.
In Shropshire, the first coronavirus death had come on March 14, 2020, which was just over a week before the lockdown announcement by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which came on March 23.
The crisis eased over the summer only to return with a vengeance the following winter, leading to a new lockdown.
December 8 saw the light at the end of a dark tunnel when 90-year-old Margaret Keenan became the first person in the world to be given the newly-approved vaccine.
Within a week the first GP-led coronavirus vaccine clinics started in Shropshire, and there followed a race to protect as many people as possible as Covid cases soared. January 20, 2021, saw a grim new milestone, with a record 1,820 people in the UK dying within 28 days of a positive Covid test.
