A tragic year – Timeline of the pandemic in front pages

It’s been one year since the first major coronavirus outbreak took hold in China, sparking a pandemic which brought death, suffering and recession to countries across the globe.

We look back on a tragic year via some of our front pages from the last 12 months.

In January 2020, coronavirus really began making its presence felt in the world, sending parts of the Chinese city of Wuhan into lockdown.

Exactly a year ago, The Courier published its first front page about the virus, amid fears it had arrived in Tayside.

Come February, the first cases were being reported in Europe.

Within weeks, our lives would change for good.

Scotland’s first recorded Covid-19 case was on March 1. Just 10 days later, the World Health Organisation declared the outbreak a fully fledged global pandemic.

Hugs and handshakes were out as social distancing became the norm and health officials across the globe emphasised the importance of personal hygiene.

Factories struggled to meet demand for PPE as face masks became compulsory, while distillers and brewers turned their attention from making booze to producing hand sanitiser.

On March 13, Scotland’s first coronavirus death was recorded and within days the NHS was placed on an “emergency footing”.

As the pandemic took hold across the globe, and more people succumbed to the deadly disease, leaders decided to act. Some, it has been argued, too late.

As these front pages show, the signs of the lockdown to come were there early on.

On March 18, it was announced that Scotland’s schools would close due to the pandemic.

The move was followed just days later by another bombshell announcement as Scotland and the rest of the UK went into full lockdown.

City centres became ghost towns, pubs were boarded up, Zoom calls replaced gatherings with friends, and cinemas, theatres and football stadiums sat empty.

Even the roads went quiet as people got on their bikes and put on their hiking boots for permitted daily exercises.

The lockdown rules became legally enforceable later in March as police were handed “unprecedented” new powers to issue fines.

On April 5, Scotland’s chief medical officer Dr Catherine Calderwood resigned after making two trips to her second home in Fife during lockdown.

Also in the first week of April, Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted to an intensive care unit suffering from coronavirus.

At the tragic early height of the pandemic in May, local people fell victim to Covid-19.

Among the victims were brave carers Janet Livingston, Johanna Daniels and Karen Hutton.

While summer permitted an easing of restrictions in Scotland, life was not what it was. It was a summer of hill walks, staycations, gardening, and frustrating barriers between families and friends.

Though declining case number and deaths provided some hope of a better winter, it was not to last.

In June, it was decided that the prevalence of Covid-19 was low enough in the community to permit the safe return of schools at the end of summer.

But in early August, the Scottish Government faced a huge backlash around its handling of exam results following the closure of schools.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) came under fire after it emerged more than 133,000 results had been adjusted from teachers’ estimates – with children in the most deprived areas the worst hit. A U-turn on the results ensued.

As autumn crept in, Covid-19 remained a threat in the local area and by September, tougher restrictions had returned.

In November, the picture seemed bleak until the news of an effective Covid19 vaccine emerged from Pfizer and Biontech.

However, the joy was quickly snuffed out by one of the toughest Decembers in living memory as plans to ease restrictions for several days over Christmas were thrown out in response to increased transmission of the virus and rising death numbers.

Christmas was cancelled, but the worst was yet to come.

While Scots largely abided by the rules on Hogmanay, the emergence of a new strain of coronavirus shattered any hopes of a new dawn in 2021.

Scotland entered January with its border to England shut, and heavily policed, and the nation on the cusp of the second major lockdown in just a year.

Within days of 2021, schools were closed to all but a handful of pupils, with strict travel measures and a legally enforceable “stay at home” rule put in place.

While the vaccine rollout programme brings us hope of a return to normality later in 2021, much remains unknown about the new strains of coronavirus which are emerging.

One year on from the events in Wuhan, the future remains uncertain.

“Within weeks, our lives would change for good

Some of The Courier’s front pages over the last 12 months.