If we go back to exactly this time last year, it would be hard to comprehend just how extensively our lives were on the cusp of changing.

While we had already been encouraged to work from home, just days away on March 23, 2020, this turned into England’s first lockdown as Covid-19 cases soared. The KM reporting team looks back at an incredible year that has left no-one untouched.

“From this evening I must give the British people a very simple instruction - you must stay at home.”

With those words, addressed to the nation on March 23, the Prime Minister ushered in the first Covid-19 lockdown and changed all our lives in ways unimaginable just weeks earlier.

Many workplaces were left deserted, schools were closed to all but the vulnerable and children of key workers, and town centres took on an eerie quality as shops, gyms, pubs and restaurants closed.

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.

A scramble was taking place with the military to set up an NHS Nightingale hospital in London, which stood ready to take people if local hospitals became overwhelmed.

The first confirmed case of coronavirus in Kent emerged in early March at a business based at Maidstone Studios, but at that point few knew quite the scale of the crisis to come.

Now, after a year of living with on-off restrictions and successive lockdowns, it is almost difficult to recall just how strange those spring days at the start of the pandemic felt, and how they seemed to unite the county.

Few things symbolised this sense of shared purpose quite like the weekly Clap for Carers, which saw millions across the country come to their doorsteps to applaud in recognition of the sacrifice of those working on the frontline against the virus and towns and villages coming together to organise food and medicine parcels for vulnerable residents.

But while love for the NHS was abundant, common sense appeared in short supply as panic-buyers descended on shops to strip the shelves of toilet paper, medications and dried pasta.

And while those fortunate enough to work from home got used to life at the kitchen table, parents were faced with the daunting prospect of home-schooling their children.

Art classes for many children involved creating colourful rainbows which were placed in the windows of homes.

There were lighter moments - such as when people found socially-distant ways to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day in May.

As spring turned to summer people were desperate for things to begin to reopen and life return to normal.

Nothing captured this sense expectation more than the build up to what was billed as ‘Super Saturday’, the reopening of the economy on July 4 which saw pubs, restaurants and hairdressers laid low by the shutdown spring back into life.

Delighted drinkers queued outside the Muggleton Inn in Maidstone ready for the pub’s opening at 8am.

Flicks Hair Studio in Tovil was one of many taking plenty of precautions, installing perspex screens between each chair and asking clients to pay an extra £4 for a disposable mask, gown and disposable towel.

Jessica Faulkes, who runs the Church Street salon with her mum Maxine, spoke for businesses owners everywhere when she said she couldn’t wait to get back to work, having tried to cover everything to make people feel safe.

Throughout August we were encouraged to ‘Eat Out to Help Out’, a government scheme offering discounted meals to give pubs and restaurants a boost.

Schools reopened to all pupils in September, but before long cases were being identified and many pupils - even whole year groups - were forced to self isolate.

Shortly before Christmas the emergence of the so-called Kent variant of Covid-19 saw the PM announce stricter Tier 4 measures for the county amid growing concern the new, fast-spreading strain.

But even this was not enough to bring the latest wave of the pandemic under control, and just days into the new year a new national lockdown was imposed.

Now there is hope the rapid roll-out of the vaccine may lead to normal life returning by the summer, with events taking place, businesses reopened and the pubs once again welcoming thirsty regulars, with the Prime Minister indicating most restrictions will lift on June 21.

Reflecting on care home challenges

For care home residents and staff, it has been a time like no other with family visits banned for a large chunk of the year.

They have been badly affected by the coronavirus pandemic, with the outbreak having a devastating impact on many of the vulnerable people living in social care.

Karen Burrows, manager at Loose Court in Rushmead Drive, Maidstone, concedes there were times last year when their home felt like “a mini hospital” but she hailed the actions from those living nearby.

She said: “We have had so much support from the local community.

“One of the local schools did a giving tree, so everybody took a label with someone’s name on it and they bought a gift for that person in the home, so that was amazing.

“I think it has just highlighted a little bit how forgotten we were at the beginning.

“The virus was getting into care homes and then everyone sort of thought ‘We need to help’, but the response has been amazing.”

Mrs Burrows said she felt the care home sector had been forgotten a little bit prior to March 2020 but added: “I think we are a bit more up there now."

‘We are still not out of the woods’

Lockdown may be easing as we follow the Government’s roadmap out of restrictions, but this is only possible because of the steep fall in infection since the latest lockdown began.

The number of Kent residents contracting Covid-19 has fallen dramatically in the last two months, but the county’s public health boss says transmission rates still remain “too high” and we are still not out of the woods.

However things have improved significantly from the peak of the latest wave, which Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust chief executive Miles Scott said saw NHS staff delivering “a kind of battlefield medicine” as cases surged and intensive care beds were filled.

Critical care at the Trust reached a state of “super surge” as unprecedented demand for intensive care for the very worst cases of coronavirus drew medical staff from other areas of the health service locally during the winter peak.

At the peak of the second wave there were 334 people in hospital in Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells with Covid-19, around three times the number seen in the first wave a year ago.

The rate of infection in Maidstone borough has now fallen to around 20 per 100,000 people, driven down by the restrictions of the latest lockdown.

That figure had climbed as high as 870 in early January, and the so-called Kent variant swept through the community.

Wait almost over for some in the hospitality industry

For businesses in the hospitality and leisure industry, the majority of the year has forced them to close.

Suzie Goad, 37, runs The Railway pub in Wateringbury with her sister and mum.

The trio cook and deliver meals to residents but she says some days there are no orders and they are not making a profit.

She said: “It has been awful, it’s been hard work. We have only been open three months this year.”

Every day they get up to clean the pub, despite no customers coming in.

They are hopeful however this limbo will soon end and are preparing the garden for April 12, when outside hospitality is allowed to reopen.

Matestone, a cafe in the County Town, was only launched and open 10 days before it was ordered to shut in March.

George Spencer, 45, who runs it said: “I wouldn’t open a business in this climate, as I am open I am enjoying being here, even though it isn’t making money.”

The cafe is open from 9am to 9pm every day, but on average they only have about two customers an hour coming in for takeaway.

Like Suzie and her family, April 12 is their glimmer of hope.

Teachers finding ways to adapt

Teachers have found themselves constantly adapting to changing rules set by the government as well as transforming their lessons and classrooms.

At Five Acre Wood School in Maidstone, for children with profound, severe and complex learning difficulties, their main Boughton Lane site has been divided into hubs, with about six to eight bubbles in each hub. The hubs are separated through fencing and each have their own bathrooms.

The aim is to prevent coronavirus spreading through the school, if one pupil gets it.

An in-house track and trace system has also been set up. These changes would have been unimaginable more than a year ago.

Principal Peggy Murphy says the initial lockdown was the most challenging.

She said: “It was so much of ‘what are we going to do about this for staff? What are we going to do about blocking the corridors? Let’s get Harris Fencing. Now it’s just little tweaks.”

Tim Williams, head of the Maidstone site, adds the government could announce changes to rules in the evening and the school would then need to react fast to reach out to parents.

Mark Chatley, head of Palace Wood primary agrees, saying the biggest challenge for him was responding to education advice, which often came in late. Mr Chatley filmed videos to keep families informed of everything happening in the school and also set up a foodbank.

Despite the difficulties, schools also devised ways to lighten up lockdown.

For example, the Palace Wood head filmed himself getting wrapped in toilet roll, apple bobbing and other physical challenges.

Hand sanitiser became a big business

As soon as the first case was announced in Maidstone, the price of hand sanitiser skyrocketed making it one of the most sought after items on the shelves.

It meant companies such as Jennychem in Snodland, a family-run business producing industrial chemicals, stepped up its production of the gel making around 20,000 bottles each week.

The demand was so high, manufacturing other products came to a halt to get all the orders labelled up, and out of the door.

Despite doing all it could to meet the demand, the company faced backlash over its prices.

At the beginning of March 2020, a 5L bottle cost around £27.50 plus VAT. By the end of the month the same size bottle cost approximately £55 plus VAT.

But it was not the company cashing in, the high demand meant the cost of its main ingredient, IPA went up by more than 400% in a matter of weeks.

And it’s not just Jennychem that adapted to fight the virus, Maidstone Distillery in the Market Buildings also put its production line to use making hand gel for health care workers locally.

The relaxation of the rules on the use of alcohol in the making of hand sanitisers meant they switched production to help increase stocks during the coronavirus crisis.

Read more: All the latest news from Maidstone