The story of Greater Manchester’s lockdown
Five years on from the first Covid lockdown Beth Abbit recalls the moments big and small during an extraordinary and harrowing time in Greater Manchester’s recent history.
Valentine’s Day, 2020 – It’s five weeks before the UK enters lockdown. The newly named Covid-19 is already ravaging the country but details of its true impact are scarce.
Official data states that nine people have been infected so far.
There have been 1,380 deaths from the virus in China and more than 63,000 infections. As such, travellers who have recently left Wuhan or Hubei Province are asked to stay indoors and avoid contact with others.
In Greater Manchester, the owners of A1 Fish and Chips place themselves into isolation. Nobody in the family is ill, but they have recently returned from China and take the decision to temporarily shut their Westhoughton shop.
In a crackly message on their answering machine, they say they are taking ‘responsibility’ for safety. It’s a moment of altruism at a time when Chinese communities across Greater Manchester are being vilified, their children bullied and accused of ‘poisoning’ fellow Mancunians.
But there is light and shade. In Moss Side, children at St Mary’s C of E Primary School, write messages of support to their Chinese peers as Wuhan locks down.
In the early days of the first pandemic to hit Britain for more than a century, misinformation runs rife. It’s an ugly trend that will last throughout the pandemic.
February 26 – Coronavirus isolation pods are set up at every hospital in Greater Manchester.
Signs pinned up outside emergency units tell those with symptoms to call a dedicated coronavirus phone number and stay away from the A&E. Anyone taken to a pod is treated by clinicians in hazmat suits.
The total number of confirmed cases in the UK is said to stand at 13.
March 15 – Nicole Ratcliffe gives birth to her second daughter Alyssia at St Mary’s Hospital, Manchester, just a day before Prime Minister Boris Johnson orders an end to non-essential contact and travel.
Nicole sets up the ‘COVID-19 Baby’ Facebook group to help other parents giving birth in the strangest of circumstances.
She beds down with Alyssia, husband Rob and four-year-old daughter Sofia at their Wythenshawe home and enjoys ‘the newborn cuddles’.
“It was naturally quite a terrifying feeling,” Nicole says today.
“Alyssia is thriving. Sofia gets upset because of all the things her sister is doing now at school that she missed out on. Alyssia will say ‘what’s Covid?’, while Sofia will say ‘stupid Covid’. She knows it took her away from people she loved and the things she enjoyed.”
March 18 – A couple dressed head-to-toe in matching yellow hazmat suits and military style gas masks walk through Salford Precinct with their shopping bags.
March 19 – Hundreds of pupils at Silver Springs Primary Academy, in Stalybridge perform for elderly residents sheltering from coronavirus at Kendal House, which sits opposite their playground.
March 21 – Hilda Churchill, 108, dies at Kenyon Lodge care home, in Little Hulton, just hours after being diagnosed with the virus. She is thought to be Britain’s oldest coronavirus victim.
The former seamstress survived two world wars and the Spanish flu. In the weeks before her death she talks extensively to her grandson Anthony Churchill about the virus, offering perspective few others can.
She remembers how her whole family came down with Spanish flu. “Sadly her little sister, who was only 12 months old, died of it. Grandma said she remembers a small box being put in a carriage,” Anthony says at the time.
“Her dad collapsed in the street with it, but survived. She was saying how amazing it is that something you can’t see can be so devastating.”
March 23 – Boris Johnson announces the first UK lockdown, ordering people to ‘stay at home’.
March 26 – People applaud the NHS from their balconies and gardens opposite Wythenshawe Hospital as part of the government-led ‘Clap For Our Carers’ campaign. The nation is encouraged to join a mass applause at 8pm each Thursday to show their appreciation for NHS staff.
In years to come healthcare workers will explain how they found patronised by the ritual amid immense pressure on care homes and the NHS. During strike action in 2022 the nurses union repeatedly raises the point: ‘Covid claps don’t pay the bills’.
April 15 – Members of Manchester’s Chinese community donate thousands of face masks, gloves and aprons to social care workers across the city. They have raised almost £16,000 for the NHS.
Since February, staff at Manchester Chinese Centre have been receiving phone calls from strangers who blame the city’s Chinese residents for the spread of the virus.
Centre director Jenny Wong says ‘anyone who looks Asian’, including those from Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and Korea – are being affected by racism. Chinese children are bullied and struggle as schools close, with many losing language skills.
Speaking today, Jenny reflects on that ‘awful’ time. “One man called and said: ‘You Chinese had better not use the toilets’.
“Our children suffered mentally, physically and socially. At home the children automatically spoke Chinese. Now they are struggling with GCSE English but also with their other lessons. They have been left behind.”
April 17 – As lockdown is extended, clinicians practice oxygen therapy at Manchester’s new Nightingale Hospital. The 648-bed £10million field facility has been speedily built at Manchester Central Convention Centre, a former railway station terminus known locally as Gmex.
A field hospital would usually take four-to-six years to build. This one has taken two weeks.
Major Matthew Fry, who is overseeing the project, says patients from across the North West will come to the hospital after discharge from Intensive Care Units.
“Hopefully it will never be used but we prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” he says. Less than a year later, staff at the temporary hospital are stood down.
April 30 – The Prime Minister declares Britain is ‘past the peak’ of the pandemic.
May 10 – Boris Johnson announces a conditional plan for lifting lockdown. He encourages those who cannot work from home to return to work, but avoid public transport.
May 11 – Hairdresser Natalie Gaughran has closed her Heywood salon during lockdown.
As the weeks roll by and we all realise how much we need a haircut, Natalie has been lending her clippers to clients. She has also visited customers and stood outside their homes, demonstrating how to dye their partner’s roots by using a dummy through the window.
She is frustrated at the lack of clarity about when she can reopen the salon. “I own a busy salon, a lot of people come past and come in a for a brew. All the older dears come here for a blow wave, it’s their little day out,” she says.
June 1 – Glyn Potts, headteacher at Newman College, in Oldham, returns home to his wife and four-month-old son. Before entering the house, he strips naked in the garage then rushes upstairs to shower.
Newman has remained open from 6am – 7pm every day, including weekends, to ensure children of key workers have somewhere to go. Schools across England are now preparing for phased re-opening.
“The first thing I remember about that time was the fear,” Glyn says today. “Some people were all allowed to work from home but teachers were told children are big infectors, it’s easy to pass on and it can kill you – and we had to go to work.
“The school was open every day. We were trying to keep those children fed, educated and positive because their parents were doing dangerous jobs as police officers, nurses, doctors.”
Throughout the pandemic, schools deal with repeated closures, mass testing and a lack of resources. In November, Glyn will ask the government for 173 laptops so his pupils can work remotely. They receive 35.
He now says a ‘complete lack of clarity’ from the government led to a missed opportunity to overturn the English education system. Instead there are now ‘far more anxious children’, in far greater need of support, many of whom struggle with friendships.
“We could have come back to a more family-friendly education system,” he insists. “That Covid period should have been a badge of honour for educators – as it was for the NHS. But I don’t think society felt the same about education and that’s a real shame.”
June 15 – Non-essential shops reopen in England
June 23 – Boris Johnson announces relaxing of restrictions and a new two-metre social distancing rule. He says the UK’s ‘national hibernation’ is coming to an end.
July 4 – More restrictions are eased in England, including reopening of pubs, restaurants, hairdressers.
July 17 – Jen Ward and Andy Brown meet up in person for the first time since getting in touch via Plenty of Fish in April. Their first date at Cafe Nero, on Deansgate, goes so well that they meet again the following day.
Ahead of the second lockdown they will make the snap decision to move in together. Andy will rush home to Middleton in full PPE to collect belongings from his parents house. He will order them to stay in the kitchen while he scrabbles for the bits he needs.
Job coach Andy moves in with nurse Jen and never leaves. The couple now have a two-year-old daughter, Daphne.
“I don’t even know if we would have met up if it had been under normal circumstance,” says Jen, five years on. “But we just felt like we really knew each other.”
Andy adds: “I think because we got to talk for so long without any pressure to meet – because we physically couldn’t – we just knew we would get on.”
July 18 – Local authorities in England gain additional powers to enforce social distancing
August 3 – Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme – designed to support the struggling hospitality sector – begins.
Behind the scenes, health officials are unhappy with the scheme. They privately dub the future PM ‘Dr Death’ and blame the measure for a rise in infections.
August 14 – Lockdown restrictions eased further, including reopening indoor theatres, bowling alleys and soft play centres.
August 21 – In Oldham, stricter measures are being imposed to stem a rise in cases. There is a spike in areas populated largely by people from Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities – fuelling a rise in Islamophobic incidents.
Rumours swirl that the borough will be placed on full lockdown, like in Leicester, which has been on local lockdown since early July.
Basit Shah, of the Oldham Mosque Council, says ‘ignorance or arrogance’ has led some to ‘tangle’ race and the virus. “If you look at Glodwick, we have eight members of the family in a two or three bedroom house,” he says. “Because BAME workers often work as nurses or doctors or taxi drivers, they could be affected from outside, then infect people in the house. The virus has nothing to do with race.”
September 14 – People in England are banned from meeting in groups of more than six in both indoor and outdoor settings.
September 22 – Boris Johnson announces new restrictions in England, including a return to working from home and a 10pm curfew for the hospitality sector.
September 25 – Student halls of residence at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Birley and Cambridge Hall are locked down for a fortnight. The 1,700 students living there are told to self isolate ‘with immediate effect’ following a spike in cases on campus. The action follows several reports of large student gatherings, including one which saw around 100 students partying until the early hours.
University bosses tell students they can ‘bubble’ with their entire hall. Several students are later seen partying until the early hours in the campus courtyard.
Signs are placed in the windows of the accommodation with one dubbing the halls as ‘HMP MMU’ and others reading ‘f*** Boris’ and ‘Tories out’.
October 14 – A new three-tier system of Covid-19 restrictions starts in England.
October 15 – Andy Burnham and regional leaders stand on the steps of Central Library and blast the government for treating Greater Manchester as a ‘canary in the coal mine’ over Tier 3 restrictions.
During tense negotiations, the government has told northern leaders ‘there’s no money left’ for full financial support under Tier 3 restrictions. The mayor says cities in the north are being used as part of an ‘experimental regional lockdown strategy’.
The Covid inquiry will later reveal that Greater Manchester was handed a ‘punishment beating’ by handing down tougher Covid restrictions because Mr Burnham took a stand.
October 20, 2020 – After ten days of negotiations about Tier 3 restrictions, last-ditch talks between Boris Johnson and Andy Burnham break down. The mayor holds a press conference outside the Bridgewater Hall and accuses the government of ‘playing poker with people’s lives’.
With the PM due to announce new restrictions for Greater Manchester, Mr Burnham says the region has not been offered enough money to help the poorest people through the winter.
As he takes questions from the press, Manchester Council leader Sir Richard Leese gets an alert on his phone, revealing when measures will come into force. It’s news to Mr Burnham.
November 5 – A second national lockdown comes into force in England. That evening, angry students tear down ‘lockdown fencing’ which has been erected at the University of Manchester’s Owens Park campus without warning. Branding the site ‘HMP Fallowfield’, the students react with fury over the decision to ‘pen them in’. After a night of chaos, university bosses apologise and remove the fencing.
