The Portsmouth Coronavirus timeline, how the city has been impacted by the pandemic.
On the 17th of May Portsmouth’s hospitality industry opened its doors to the public, with the rule of six applying to both indoor and outdoor seating.
As the government’s Spring 2021 roadmap has shone a light at the end of the tunnel in returning to some semblance of normality, let’s recap on how Portsmouth was impacted by the pandemic.
Since March 2020, cumulatively there have been 14,350 cases of Covid-19 in Portsmouth, with 13,910 of those recovering from the virus. One of those people was George Porter, 20, a Sports and Exercise Science student at the university.
On March 25th 2020, there were 33 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Portsmouth, students were urged to return to their homes as the country was thrusted into lockdown on the 16th of March.
Mr Porter stated: “we got little notice on when we had to move out of our accommodation, it was all a bit of a mad rush, our first year at university was just cut short right before the summer term.”
After promises of ‘turning the tide within 12 weeks’, the phased reopening of schools and non-essential shops began on the 1st of June 2020, as Portsmouth’s high streets started to light up once again.
The cumulative amount of Covid cases in Portsmouth at the start of June rose to 319 cases, then further increased to 511 cases by the end of July, whether this can be attributed to the potentially premature reopening of colleges and schools is up for debate.
On the 3rd of August 2020, the Eat Out to Help Out scheme was introduced, offering a 50% discount on meals upto £10 per person, which saw a mass increase in the number of people in Portsmouth eating out in restaurants.
Whilst teaching remained online at the start of September, students started returning to Portsmouth, however the Covid-19 situation was becoming increasingly worrying. By the end of September 2020, cumulatively, 79 people had died as a direct result of Covid.
October saw a spike in the number of Covid cases in Portsmouth, increasing from 699 confirmed cumulative cases by the end of September, to 2040 confirmed cases on October 31st.
George Porter, contracted the virus in the middle of October stated that: “I was made aware that i had come into contact with someone who had tested positive through the track and trace app, and got a test the next day which unfortunately came back positive.
“Whilst my symptoms were no more than a loss in my sense of smell, it was still scary to find out i had it.”
From the introduction of the tier system in December to the rollout of the vaccine in early January, Portsmouth saw 12,533 confirmed Covid cases. However, over 92% of all over 60’s have received their first jab, which is above the average 88.9 national percent.
The vaccine has seemingly slowed the rates of new cases in Portsmouth, and could be the first step in returning to normality.
