Upon confirmation, they were transferred from Hull University Teaching Hospital to a specialist isolation facility, a designated High Consequence Infectious Diseases Unit in Newcastle upon Tyne's Royal Victoria Infirmary.

[19][23] On 6 February, a third confirmed case, a man who had recently travelled to Singapore prior to visiting a ski resort in the Haute-Savoie, France, was reported in Brighton.

The research, which was at an early stage, concluded that the data were consistent with a large number of independent introductions into the UK, from places around the world, particularly Italy and other European countries.

In April, the ITV News health and science editor Emily Morgan filmed inside the intensive care unit at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital in Dorset, showing critically ill coronavirus patients being treated.

[46] The GMB union told members not to use the app, saying that managers could identify staff who had complained about pay, testing and personal protective equipment through a chat feature.

[39] A study published on 8 June which included genome sequencing data[52] concluded that in mid to late February travel from Italy resulted in the majority of importations.

Non-essential shops in the city had to close, and the public houses and restaurants hoping to reopen on 4 July had to delay opening for at least two weeks; schools would also be shut for most pupils.

[43] The rules aimed at stopping the spread of the virus were eased on 15 August: casinos, bowling alleys and conference halls were among a range of venues allowed to reopen across much of England.

Also permitted were indoor performances with socially distanced live audiences (including in theatres and sports stadiums), wedding receptions for up to 30 people, skating rinks and beauticians as long as they had measures in place to reduce COVID-19 transmission.

[39] Between July and September 2020, ever more extensive and increasingly rigorous ad hoc local regulations were introduced, which in many areas proved unsuccessful in controlling the spread of the virus.

[39] The effectiveness of the vaccine is beginning to become apparent as ONS data shows that as a percentage of all deaths from COVID-19 those in care homes has reduced from around 20% a week at its peak to less than 15% in April.

Social distancing and mask wearing became optional, and night clubs were allowed to re-open, however self-isolation remained mandatory for close contacts of a positive case.

[citation needed] On 14 September, Prime Minister Johnson warned that COVID-19 remained a risk in England as the autumn and winter approached, and unveiled the government's plans to protect the NHS.

Johnson stated that the implementation of "Plan B" would be based on multiple metrics (including hospitalizations, caseloads, and other factors), and would "give us the confidence that we don't have to go back to the lockdowns of the past.".

[97] The NHS Confederation and the British Medical Association urged the government to implement "Plan B" for COVID-19 in the winter due to a backlog of five million patients.

[112] For the first nine weeks of 2021 the total number of excess deaths in 2021 continued to increase, then from 12 March it started to reduce, this in likely to be in part is because some of the people who died prematurely from COVID-19 would have succumbed to something else at a slightly later date.

Some differences were observed between the genders, with a generally higher percentage of deaths for men; the exception was those over 75, but this reflects the greater number of older women in the population.

[115] Although there is a lag between catching the disease and mortality, the ONS data provided a way of identifying the effectiveness of the vaccination programme; only combined date for England and Wales are available.

[124] These included: The full regulations are detailed in: In England, up until 14 October 2020 most of the COVID-19 lockdown regulations covered the whole country, but some local areas of particular concern are or have been subject to more restrictive rules at various times, namely Leicester, Luton, Blackburn with Darwen, Bradford, Tameside, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Trafford, Wigan, Pendle, Hyndburn, Burnley, Calderdale and Kirklees.

[128] Austria, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, Bosnia and Herzegovina, British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Comoros, Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Curaçao, Cyprus, Czech Republic (Czechia), Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Polynesia, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece (including islands), Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), Nauru, Netherlands, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, North Macedonia, Norway, The Palestinian Territories, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, Poland, Réunion, Romania, Russia, Samoa, San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Korea, South Sudan, Spain (including the Balearics and Canary Islands), Sri Lanka, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Martin and St Barthélemy, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United States (USA), Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Wallis and Futuna, Western Sahara and Yemen.

[175] NHS England's approach to communications during the pandemic was described as "truly dreadful" by Sir Richard Leese, chair of Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership in May 2021.

In December 2020, nine months after the pandemic was declared, the sex ratio at birth dramatically increased to 51.71%, most likely as a result of lockdown measures that initially encouraged more coupled sexual activity in a portion of the population.

[177] In March, police forces in each nation of the UK were given powers to arrest and issue fixed penalty notices (FPNs) to citizens who broke lockdown rules.

[183] By 31 March, some police forces and individual officers were being criticised by a variety of people including[184] former Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption,[185][186] former Justice secretary David Gauke,[184] former Chancellor George Osborne and privacy and civil liberties group Big Brother Watch for over-zealous and incorrect application of the new powers.

There had also been reports of scams involving the replacement school meals scheme and incidents of people posing as government officials, council staff or IT workers.

[206] During the contact tracing app trial on the Isle of Wight the Chartered Trading Standards Institute found evidence of a phishing scam.

[207] On 17 March, trials lasting longer than three days were postponed until May in England and Wales, Those cases already running would continue in the hope of reaching a conclusion.

[211] On 28 April, Public Health England had identified around 2,000 "possible/probable" and confirmed COVID-19 cases; outbreaks had occurred in 75 different institutions, with 35 inmates treated in hospital and 15 deaths.

[236] on 12 May, TfL documents warned it expected to lose £4bn due to the pandemic and said it needed £3.2bn to balance a proposed emergency budget for 2021, having lost 90% of its overall income.

[238] In April, Govia Thameslink Railway re-branded three trains with special liveries to show its support for the NHS and the 200,000 essential workers commuting on GTR's network every week.