Recalling fateful day coronavirus arrived in county
Cast your mind back to life before the coronavirus pandemic. Seems a long time ago now doesn’t it? Reporter NIGEL SLATER looks back to February 27, 2020 – a day when Derbyshire was well and truly in the media spotlight.
IN my early days as a trainee reporter my news editor would always tell me “you’ll know if it’s a big story as soon as you arrive at the scene”.
It has been a line I’ve followed all throughout my journalistic career.
In practice it means you can take as many phone calls, emails, Facebook/Twitter messages you like – but there’s nothing stronger than being at the scene of a major news story yourself and reporting what’s happening in front of your eyes.
I’ve been lucky enough to do this on many occasions for the Derby Telegraph in recent times – but nothing was to prepare me for what happened on a cold Thursday morning in February last year.
It’s a day I’ll never forget. And it started very early indeed.
I began my travels from about 6.30am as a new Lidl was to open in Chellaston. We had done previous stories about this new supermarket and the controversies surrounding it, so I knew it would be worth going along and getting the word from the street about it.
It was pretty much a straightforward job – take pictures of the queue before it opens, talk to shoppers and meet the store manager, that kind of thing. Job done, now head back to office – or so I thought.
As I returned to my car I browsed my phone to check what was happening in the world. Via Whatsapp, I let my colleagues know of a report I had seen stating that there was some kind of coronavirus scare at a school in Buxton. Back then we all knew what coronavirus was, but the true seriousness of it all I was soon to realise.
I headed back to the Derby Telegraph office in the city centre, but I wasn’t there for long. As soon as I walked in, my news editor asked if I could make my way to Buxton and report on what was happening. The fact that I was asked to go to Buxton – more than an hour’s drive from the Siddals Road office – showed its seriousness.
I don’t know Buxton very well, so it took me a while to get there, especially as there had been heavy snow in north Derbyshire overnight.
As I got closer to the school, I approached a small roundabout and in the corner of my eye I noticed a gathering of people. It looked like a media circus was already in place.
After parking, I walked up to the school and there was a Sky News reporter speaking in front of a camera. Then another camera crew turned up. It soon was apparent that this was a national story.
The news was that Burbage Primary School had closed after a parent was confirmed to have coronavirus, understood to be the first positive case in Derbyshire and one of the first in the UK.
“I’ve never seen so many reporters”, said one resident after I knocked on his door to get reaction.
Within minutes of me arriving, I spoke to one parent who was confused and worried about what was going on.
In reality there was not actually much going on – the school was closed and a deep clean was taking place inside, which you couldn’t see. It was a very small school.
It appeared nobody from the school would be commenting in front of a camera and statements would be issued in due course.
But the fact that the disease had made its way to the UK – and this was the first real confirmation – was major news. This was a big deal.
A little cul-de-sac in Buxton had turned into a major news scene with cameras everywhere. Journalists were here for the long haul.
I got there early enough to find out more about the story from a BBC Radio Derby reporter who himself had a close contact with the school.
It turned out a parent had been to Tenerife during the half-term break and contracted the virus there.
I was told to stay at the scene and get as much reaction possible.
I remember being shocked as more and more cars arrived in this small street in Buxton.
A white Jaguar arrived at the scene. The driver, a reporter from The Sun, introduced herself to me and wanted to know the whole story.
“I’m here to find out who it is that’s got coronavirus”, she said. You could tell she worked for The Sun.
I then walked a mile or two to see that a local GP surgery in the town was closed due to the health scare. So not only was a school closed, but a medical service as well – this was big.
“It was bound to happen sooner or later” one resident told me. “And Buxton is the place to get it in the UK first – who would have thought it”, they added.
I left the scene at around 3pm, but some journalists were at the scene much longer, doing their live reports throughout the afternoon and evening.
In weeks to come, supermarkets became the only place for people to visit during the first, and never to be forgotten, stay-at-home lockdown.
Going to a supermarket was just one of a very few reasons you could leave your home. Other shops were closed – you couldn’t even go to your friend’s house, as the pandemic reached serious proportions.
So how ironic that the day started by me reporting on the opening of a supermarket and then news of a coronavirus outbreak.
Almost a year on and the pandemic is still causing shockwaves in communities like Buxton and all over. Let’s hope 2021 sees some kind of normality resume.
Then another camera crew turned up. It soon was apparent that this was a national story.
Nigel Slater