More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
“From this evening, I must give the British people a very simple instruction - you must stay at home.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson uttered those words on March 23, 2020, five years ago today, as the nation watched on, fearful of the coronavirus pandemic.
Little did we know that same man would be near death just weeks later before making a full recovery. Before long, he would be caught up in the ‘partygate’ scandal.
We were yet to fall in love with Captain Sir Tom Moore or be ostracised in the supermarket queue for forgetting a face mask.
The first lockdown was a time marked by tragedy, with so many lives cut short by Covid-19, as the virus later became known.
Yet it was also a period where day-to-day life changed dramatically - and some aspects now seem surreal.
A 64-year-old man from Medway became the first person in Kent to die on March 20 after testing positive for coronavirus. He was being looked after at Medway Maritime Hospital and had underlying health conditions.
Two days later, 83-year-old grandmother Shirley Brown, from St Mary's Platt, was the second person known to have died from the virus in the county.
In the following weeks, our usually bustling town and city centres were left deserted with shops, pubs, restaurants and gyms all left abandoned.
We were told to “stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives”.
Schools were closed to all but the vulnerable and children of key workers, with the sudden absence of life haunting those who did venture out into this new, eerie world.
The nation was also being told of new police powers to fine people who ignored the instruction to only go out for essential food and supplies or outdoor exercise and families were tragically separated by the ‘stay at home’ instruction.
Few things symbolised this sense of shared purpose quite like the weekly Clap for Carers, which saw countless Kent residents come to their doorsteps to applaud and bang pots and pans in recognition of our NHS heroes.
The sacrifice of those working on the frontline against the virus and towns and villages was never forgotten, with communities coming together to organise food and medicine parcels for vulnerable residents.
Thousands of people in the county flooded social media and their windows with brightly coloured pictures to show their appreciation for the NHS and key workers.
When Captain Tom raised millions for our healthcare system by walking around his garden, it was hard not to be moved by the plucky pensioner’s spirit. He was later knighted for his efforts.
It was valuable for many of us to have something to bond over, with job cuts and the furlough scheme rendering a large chunk of the population redundant.
But while love for the NHS was abundant, common sense was left wanting as panic buyers descended on shops to strip the shelves of toilet paper, medications, hand sanitiser and dried pasta.
It led to the introduction of an informal rationing system, with sales of now-precious goods limited to prevent shortages – while prices of other items skyrocketed beyond justification.
Not everyone took too kindly to such restrictions, with one man having a meltdown in Gillingham Tesco over fizzy drinks.
In time, the chaos calmed and a new, temporary shopping experience was born – one where you’d queue up one by one outside the supermarket, two metres apart in a row of masked customers.
One-way systems and social distancing became the norm, while vulnerable customers and NHS staff were at times given exclusive access to shops at particular hours.
With it being the sunniest April on record, a trip to the shops soon became a good way to spend a few hours in the glorious weather, with that and your daily exercise being one of the few justifications for straying too far from your home.
Of course, for those of us who sported dodgy lockdown haircuts, it became something of an extreme sport trying to hide those god-awful trims.
11-year-old Fin from Herne Bay was left completely bald after his clippers broke during a shave, forcing his mum to bring out the traditional razor.
"Fin is not allowed to leave the house without a hat for the time being,” said mum Loren.
People became very upset with figures such as government advisor Dominic Cummings, who went on a jolly outing to “test his vision”.
A family from Bromley was chastised by Folkestone and Hythe District Council for their 122-mile round trip to the coast.
Perhaps it was too hard for them to avoid the temptation of fuel at £1 a litre, with prices plummeting to their lowest level in years.
But being trapped inside naturally led to a lot of anxiety, while it forced a fair chunk of us to find new ways to blow off steam.
One man in Canterbury went viral when he decided to cook a roast dinner, using meat he had frozen six years earlier.
As did the Marsh family, a singing group from Faversham who appeared on national TV after creating a lockdown-themed rendition of One Day More from Les Misérables.
Netflix couldn’t believe its luck when the whole world and its dog tuned in to watch Tiger King, the epic real-life story of Joe Exotic, an American businessman with a long-running feud over big cats with Carole Baskin.
The daily press conference from Downing Street brought new faces to our screens – with the not-so-cheerful tones of Chris Whitty a key soundtrack of the first lockdown.
However, comfort was sought via Zoom calls with friends and relatives with countless virtual gatherings filling the gaps left behind in our social life.
Not that things were always too pleasant there, especially when the makeshift quizzes everybody seemed to take part in came down to the last few questions.
By May 10, we were being told things were going to start changing back to the way they were – albeit very slowly.
Garden centres reopened and people were allowed outdoors for unlimited exercise in pursuits such as tennis, golf, lawn bowls and basketball under the new changes.
Within weeks, groups of up to six were allowed to meet outside.
On June 15, when England’s retail parks, high streets and shopping centres welcomed customers, it began to feel like lockdown was a weird dream.
It would be just a short time before things started going wrong again, but with the experience of the first lockdown, we were better prepared to handle the bad news.
