2020 hindsight: How last
IT’S been a year no one expected or predicted.
When the first news of coronavirus broke in January many of us foolishly thought we’d never be affected.
Even when Covid-19 had taken hold of Italy and horrifying footage of overrun hospital wards were all over our screens, very few thought we’d still be hostage to the killer disease in the final month of 2020.
Kirklees was one of the last places in West Yorkshire to be affected with only a handful of cases being found by mid-March.
But we now know thousands of people were probably infected without realising, letting the virus spread further and deeper into our communities, leaving the borough one of the worst hit places in the country during the second wave from September to November.
With a vaccine now being rolled out to vulnerable groups there’s hope that normality will resume at some point in 2021.
But it’s clear now is not the time to relax as NHS chiefs have been told to prepare for a third wave in January.
Here are the key moments in Kirklees’ most turbulent year since the war.
Kaitlin Boltwood, a pupil from Honley High School is tested for Covid-19 after falling in following a ski trip to Italy. Meanwhile, the Lund family from Skelmanthorpe get caught up in the quarantine in Tenerife as authorities in the Canary Islands battle an outbreak in a hotel. The unlucky family end up being put in lockdown in a hotel when their flight was cancelled because of a sand storm.
The first West Yorkshire cases were confirmed. There were just 35 confirmed cases in the UK, with Kaitlin Boltwood confirmed to have had a negative test result.
Kirklees Council’s Public Health chief say she’s prepared for the crisis but a worried employee tells the Examiner there is a lack of basic things such as hand sanitiser
Huddersfield University reveals it has a confirmed case of Covid-19, prompting it to move all teaching online only. from home and only leave for essential goods. On this day Kirklees Council shuts its tips amid claims of aggressive visitors ignoring social distancing rules. They were due to only be shut for one day but remained close for several weeks as the crisis unfolded. Meanwhile, huge charity efforts begin, including a Honley couple who donated £20,000 to feed NHS workers. Philip Carlin, a vicar, becomes the first known patient from Huddersfield to die after contracting Covid-19.
Kirklees reopens its tips to the relief of thousands of householders using lockdown to do clear outs and home improvements. The government announces some schools are to reopen in June, prompting criticism from one Mirfield headteacher.
Mourners are allowed back in cremation services after a council u-turn. Dominic Cummings’ lockdown transgressions emerge with Colne Valley Tory Jason McCartney calling on him to resign. By the end of the month 250 Kirklees residents’ lives have been claimed by the virus. used again along with pubs, restaurants and hairdressers as lockdown restrictions are eased. But by the end of the month the borough would be put back in ‘local lockdown.’ The announcement was made on the eve of the Muslim celebration of Eid.
Two more major employers suffer outbreaks, Camira Fabrics and Buy It Direct. Meanwhile, there’s disappointment in the middle of the month as Kirklees is told its lockdown must remain amid an increase in infection rates. Some politicians begin to lobby for postcode-level restrictions amid higher case rates in North Kirklees. On the third weekend of the month, a huge rave with 300 ‘Covidiots’ is broken up by police in Deighton.
By the end of the month hope is growing after Yorkshire records zero Covid deaths and infection rates drop significantly. But it’s not good news for all as not all parts of the borough have restrictions eased with the towns of Batley and Dewsbury not freed from local lockdown.