One year ago today (9/2), over 100 Wuhan evacuees arrived in Milton Keynes to be quarantined for COVID-19.
The group arrived at Kents Hill Park Hotel on 9th February 2020 after being flown out from the coronavirus-hit Chinese city.
At the time, the pandemic was a relatively far-off problem with only a few cases detected in the UK, and this was the third evacuation flight that had arrived in the country.
105 British nationals and 95 European nationals, and 13 staff and medics spent 14 days in quarantine, which sparked concerns amongst the local community.
However they were later released on 23rd February after all testing negative for the virus.
The following month saw the situation quickly worsen nationwide. On 28th February 2020, the first person to contract COVID-19 in the UK was diagnosed. A man who lived in Surrey tested positive, and he had not been abroad.
The first death in the UK came one week later, on 5th March, when a woman in her seventies passed away after testing positive.
On 7th March, Milton Keynes made national headlines after it was announced that an 83-year-old man died with the virus in Milton Keynes University Hospital.
He was the 2nd person to have died with COVID-19 in the UK.
Since then, the virus has developed into a global pandemic with the UK reporting nearly 4 million cases and over 100,000 deaths.
There have been 18,130 positive cases in Milton Keynes since the pandemic began, with 413 total deaths.
However, in the past year, scientists developed multiple COVID-19 vaccines - something which usually takes over 10 years.
The UK is rolling out the biggest vaccination programme in NHS history, and over 12 million people have been vaccinated so far.
Data shows that the vaccines slow the spread of COVID-19, and cases are on the decline.
The latest local figures show that over 120,000 doses of vaccine have been delivered to residents living in Milton Keynes and Bedfordshire.
This means that 85% of people over the age of 80 have had the jab.
And yesterday, a mass vaccination centre opened in Milton Keynes which has the capacity to deliver 2,000 jabs per day.
