‘Grief and loss’

U.K. reflects a year after first lockdown

LONDON — The U.K. has had a lot to reflect on. A year to the day since Prime Minister Boris Johnson first put the country under lockdown to slow the fast-spreading coronavirus, Britain paused Tuesday to remember those who have died after contracting covid-19 and reflect on a year that has turned life upside down.

The U.K., which has spent much of the past year in lockdown, has registered more than 126,000 virus-related deaths, the highest pandemic death toll in Europe and one of the highest in the world.

The country observed a minute’s silence at noon to remember the dead as part of a national day of reflection organized by the end-of-life charity Marie Curie. People were also encouraged to stand on their doorsteps at 8 p.m. with phones, candles and flashlights to signify a “beacon of remembrance” while major landmarks were illuminated.

Johnson thanked the British public for their “courage, discipline and patience” and said a permanent memorial to those who died during the coronavirus pandemic will be built.

“For the entire British people it has been an epic of endurance and privation,” Johnson said at a televised news conference. “Of children’s birthday parties canceled, of weddings postponed, of family gatherings of all kinds simply deleted from the diary.”

Queen Elizabeth II sent a bouquet of flowers to London’s St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, where her husband, Prince Philip, was recently treated for a heart condition.

“As we look forward to a brighter future together, today we pause to reflect on the grief and loss that continues to be felt by so many people and families, and pay tribute to the immeasurable service of those who have supported us all over the last year,” she said in an accompanying note.

London’s skyline turned yellow at nightfall when landmarks including the London Eye, Trafalgar Square and Wembley Stadium were lit up. Joining them were parliaments and assemblies across the U.K. as well as other notable buildings including Cardiff Castle and Belfast’s Titanic Building.

“The emotional toll of the grief so many of us have faced, at a time when so few of us have been able to connect with friends, family and community in the ways we normally would, is immeasurable,” said Matthew Reed, chief executive of Marie Curie.

Few foresaw the scale of death and grief to come when Johnson, in a prime-time televised address on March 23, 2020, issued a “very simple instruction” for people to stay at home.

Johnson, who within days of issuing the stay-at-home order was hospitalized in intensive care with the virus, has faced criticism for delaying the first lockdown. Italy had been the first European country to go into lockdown earlier in March 2020, followed by most of the rest of the continent.

The delay, many argue, led to the U.K. recording the most deaths in Europe during the first wave of the pandemic, despite the valiant efforts of people working in the National Health Service, which has endured its most difficult period since its creation just after World War II.

Further delays in reimposing nationwide lockdowns following the easing of restrictions over the summer and fall have similarly been blamed for exacerbating Britain’s high coronavirus death toll, especially this year, when a new, more contagious variant of the virus first identified in southeast England became the dominant strain.

Calls are growing, particularly among bereaved families, for the government to back a public inquiry into its handling of the pandemic.

Johnson has said one will come but that it would be a distraction now.

Beyond the devastating death toll, the pandemic has affected every aspect of day-to-day life, most evident in the boarded-up shops and the eerily quiet city centers.

Children have spent many months cooped up at home with their often-agitated parents and siblings also struggling to deal with the realities of life under lockdown.

The pandemic has also battered the British economy, which suffered its deepest recession in more than 300 years. Pubs, restaurants, theaters, hair salons and all stores selling nonessential items such as books and footwear have spent much of the past year closed.

The economy remains almost 10% smaller than it was just over a year ago, and there are fears that many businesses won’t able to survive for long once the government starts withdrawing its unprecedented financial support.

There is some hope that the rapid rollout of coronavirus vaccines — more than half the adult population has already had one of the two doses they need — will allow lockdown to be eased in coming weeks.

Johnson insists his government’s plan to lift restrictions in England will be guided by “data, not dates,” but that life could be very much more normal by the height of summer. The other nations of the U.K. — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — have outlined similar plans.

But confirmed cases are again increasing in much of Europe, and Johnson warned that it would “wash up on our shores.”

(File Photo/AP/Kirsty Wigglesworth) A nurse holds a painting of Prime Minister Boris Johnson clapping with blood on his hands in August as part of a demonstration of National Health Service workers at hospitals across London to demand a 15% pay raise from the government in London.

(File Photo/AP/Matt Dunham) A woman is told to go home in April by a police officer on a motorbike to stop the spread of coronavirus and keep the park open for people observing the British government’s guidance of social distancing, only using parks for dog walking or one form of exercise a day, such as a run, walk, or bike ride alone or with members of the same household, on Primrose Hill in London.

(File Photo/AP/Kirsty Wigglesworth) A patient is helped from an ambulance in March 2020 as they arrive at St Thomas’ Hospital, one of may hospitals on the front line of the coronavirus outbreak in London.

(File Photo/AP/Kirsty Wigglesworth) An image of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and quotes from her historic television broadcast commenting on the coronavirus pandemic are displayed April 9 on a big screen at Piccadilly Circus in London.

(File Photo/AP/Elizabeth Dalziel) Amelie and sister Camille look out their front window in April as the lockdown enters its third week along with their parents Victoria and Damian Kerr in Berkhamsted, England.

(File Photo/AP/Jon Super) A member of the public swabs herself on the first day of the pilot scheme of mass testing in Liverpool in November. Liverpool was the pilot project for possible weekly testing of the entire population, covering up to 10 million people across England a day.

(File Photo/AP/Kirsty Wigglesworth) Students Henry Holness (left) and Eddie Favell raise their hands in class during their first day in September at Kingsdale Foundation School in London. At the time, schools in England were starting to open with special measures in place to deal with coronavirus.

(File Photo/AP/ Matt Dunham) A sign requesting people stay 2 meters apart to try to reduce the spread of covid-19 is displayed in June in front of “Out of Order,” a 1989 red phone box sculpture by British artist David Mach in Kingston upon Thames in southwest London.

(File Photo/AP/Matt Dunham) With temperatures reaching 90 degrees at Heathrow airport, people relax in June on Brighton Beach in Brighton, England.

(File Photo/AP/Alberto Pezzali) National Health Service staff applaud in April outside the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London during the weekly “Clap for our Carers.” The applause takes place across Britain every Thursday at 8 p.m. to show appreciation for health care workers, emergency services, armed services, delivery drivers, shop workers, teachers, waste collectors, manufacturers, postal workers, cleaners, vets, engineers and all those helping people with coronavirus and keeping the country functioning while most people stay at home.

(AP/Frank Augstein) Newlyweds pose for a wedding photographer on empty streets and without family in Westminster, London.

(AP/Matt Dunham) Senior Funeral Director Ben Blunt leads a procession from Heritage & Sons Funeral Directors in Aylesbury, southern England before a funeral service.

(File Photo/AP/Kirsty Wigglesworth) Critical Care staff move a covid-19 patient in January on the Christine Brown ward at King’s College Hospital in London.

(File Photo/AP/Jack Hill) Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures during a coronavirus briefing in September in Downing Street in London.

(File Photo/AP/Matt Dunham) People observe social distancing in April in an attempt to stop the spread of coronavirus by standing behind tape lines as they line up to shop outside a branch of the Tesco supermarket chain in west London.