One year of coronavirus: Brighton and Hove marks one year since first case

On February 6, 2020, the government announced that a British national had contracted the disease. About an hour later, it was established the patient was from Brighton.

Many people did not foresee the huge impact Covid-19, then unnamed, would have on all our lives. The city’s residents went about their days as normal.

LISTEN: Coronavirus One Year On Podcast

For most, the virus was nothing more than worrying news reports from China – images of medical personnel in hazmat suits dousing down Wuhan’s streets with disinfectant.

But, a few days later, those jarring images were being taken in the city.

Footage appeared of a bio-hazard technician as he cleared the County Oak Medical Centre. The Carden Hill GP practice had been closed because of an “urgent operational health and safety reason”.

The County Oak medical centre

Soon after, another coronavirus case was confirmed to be a Brighton and Hove resident and the story exploded. National and international media descended on the city, asking whether the country was ready for a pandemic as further cases were confirmed.

READ MORE: When will lockdown measures be lifted?

The city became the nation’s opening fight with the virus. It was a first-glimpse of the UK’s battle with Covid-19, which has now claimed more than 100,000 lives across the nation.

Anxiety began to grow as people questioned where the patient, later identified as Hove man Steve Walsh, had been. Mr Walsh had spent five days living normally in the city – going to the pub and yoga – before being quarantined. One-by-one medical centres and a pub were closed.

Steve Walsh

Hove and Portslade MP Peter Kyle was in constant contact with Jonathan Van-Tam, the UK’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, as teams from Public Health came to the seaside. Authorities worked to track down those who had contact with Mr Walsh, who had now been dubbed the “super spreader”.

It was the first taste of the year to come. American Express employees were told to work from home, many people were ordered into “self-isolation” and the city council reminded people of washing their hands.

READ MORE: The week coronavirus hit Brighton in front pages

We now know that the disease was not passed to anyone in the city at the time. The four patients from the Brighton and Hove area who had caught the virus from Mr Walsh had done so in the French Alps.

The diligence of the so-called “super spreader” who promptly identified himself as a potential virus patient, as well as the track-and-trace efforts from Public Health England, had saved the city from becoming the centre of an epidemic. The Lombardy region in Italy would soon prove how devastating a localised outbreak of the virus can be.

The city breathed a sigh of relief as we returned to normality and the Brighton Half Marathon went ahead as planned on February 23.

Brighton Half Marathon, February 23, 2020

The chief medical officer for the NHS, Chris Whitty, said if China’s “spillover” cases were contained the epidemic could “go away” in the UK.

However, exactly one month after 8,000 runners braved the winds on that February morning, the nation was put into lockdown and our daily lives have been immeasurably different ever since.

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