One year on after Wiltshire's first Covid-19 case

We are being urged to continue following the rules to help get us out of this lockdown

Author: Jack DeeryPublished 1st Mar 2021
Last updated 1st Mar 2021

One year ago today, on the 1st of March 2020, the first Covid-19 case in Wiltshire was recorded.

We were not told the sex, age or location of the first person, but three were recorded in the same week and the information was released to the public on the 5th.

All three were known to each other and had just returned from Italy.

Fast forward 365 days and more than 16,000 positive results have been returned in Wiltshire.

Meanwhile, over 750 people have died in the county with Covid-19 on the death certificate.

On the 5th March, Debra Lapthorne, Centre Director, Public Health England South West, said:

"Public Health England is contacting people who had close contact with three of the latest confirmed cases of COVID-19. These cases are residents of Wiltshire and became infected whilst in Northern Italy. Close contacts will be given health advice about symptoms and emergency contact details to use if they become unwell in the 14 days after contact with the confirmed cases. This tried and tested method will ensure we are able to minimise any risk to them and the wider public."

ACTS OF KINDNESS

Despite the thousands of cases and three lockdowns, the pandemic has seen many acts of kindness from members of the community.

These include things the Community Mask Trees which were first set up in Amesbury by Naomi Betts, encouraging people to wear masks in social situations.

These have since spread across the entire country.

The Amesbury Community Mask Trees team

Big efforts were also made by keen knitters who made PPE for many health and social care workers in the area.

Charities, community groups, friends, family, neighbours and many more have also all stepped up to help those most in need of help.

These include doing shopping for them or things like picking up prescriptions.

There was also many fundraising challenges done for charities like the Stars Appeal and NHS Hospitals.

In some of our darkest times, many of Wiltshire's residents stepped up to the plate to brighten up our lives a little.

STICK TO THE RULES

If everything goes to plan over the next few months, the Prime Minister has set a date of the 21st of June when much of life will return to normal.

But we are being urged to stick to the rules and make sure we are doing our bit to bring the number of cases down.

Cllr Philip Whitehead, Wiltshire Council Leader said:

"Following the Prime Minister’s announcement about the timetable for the lifting of restrictions over the next few months, we will continue to work to support schools, businesses, residents and our staff to ensure restrictions can be lifted safely across Wiltshire.

Our schools have remained open over the last six weeks for vulnerable children and those of critical workers and we are extremely grateful to those hardworking staff who have provided remote education to pupils at home as well as educating those at school. We will continue to provide our support to all our schools as they prepare to welcome back all children safely on the 8 March.

We will also be doing all we can to support businesses to ensure that they can safely start to put in place plans to reopen in the timescales set out by the Prime Minister.

It is vital that residents carry on following Government guidance as this will help save lives and ensure we can continue to ease social distancing measures and recover from COVID-19. The vaccination programme is progressing well and thousands of people in Wiltshire have already received their first dose of the vaccine. Everyone in the first 4 priority groups have been invited to have a vaccine with all care homes visited by NHS staff. Across the county uptake has been incredibly high with the vast majority of people accepting the offer to be vaccinated."

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