South west London marks one year since arrival of Covid-19

The virus originated in Wuhan, China, as a particular strain of coronavirus that spreads through close contact of people with each other and surfaces through droplets and aerosols.

It is thought to have arrived in the UK in late January, and the first cases in south west London and north Surrey were confirmed weeks later, in the final days of February and early March.

Since then, like much of the rest of the world the region has gone through tumultuous times of what became a global pandemic.

Thousands of people have died, with thousands more forced to suffer through the now familiar symptoms of a continuous cough, high temperature and debilitating cold and flu-like symptoms.

Everyone was also forced into the home quarantines of 'lockdown', which have lasted on and off from then until now, as we continue to struggle with coronavirus.

Early days

The first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in the UK on January 29, in Yorkshire. By February 12, the virus had arrived in London, with confirmed infections in north Surrey (February 29) confirmed soon after.

By early March, individual boroughs were reporting confirmed cases of the virus, including Kingston on March 3 and Croydon a week later on March 10.

Prior to the government's delayed imposition of the first national lockdown, the presence of the strange new virus, which spread easily and infected a third of cases without any tell-tale symptoms at all, prompted various reactions from the public.

One of the most memorable was mass buying of essential supplies like the toilet paper and dried or tinned food that for a time were stripped from the shelves by eager shoppers anticipating quarantine.

Meanwhile, establishments and institutions like Richmond Theatre were forced to close their doors in response to the virus.

Schools would follow soon after, with many Covid cases reported at primaries and secondaries across south west London.

Suffering, resilience and death

With the imposition of lockdown and Stay-At-Home orders, the focus soon shifted to the 'frontlines' of the pandemic in south west London: Our hospitals, where the first of thousands of deaths resulting from the virus were sadly announced.

As the number of severe cases saw hospital admissions soar in the region, individual acts of heroism on the part of NHS nurses and doctors stood out as representing our public health system's own astounding fight with the virus under unprecedented circumstances.

One of those, for example, was NHS worker Arnulfo Amado, an army reservist who also worked as a nurse on the frontlines at Croydon University Hospital. Working in such close proximity with the virus, was struck down by a severe case of Covid-19 and almost died.

Thankfully, he survived, and incredibly returned straight back to the frontlines of the pandemic nursing patients with serious cases of Covid-19.

Others, like Doctor Faisal Idrees, meanwhile told of the suffering they were experiencing daily on the wards packed out with serious Covid cases.

In a moving letter, he described the "bodies with thunderous coughs like cannons let fly, tortured under laboured gasps and feverish cries, with erratic breaths that mark that place where the invisible foe multiplied, breaching their walls and gates..."

Community spirit

Outside of the hospitals and care homes that were also badly hit during the first wave, communities in south west London and north Surrey showed their own resilience in dealing with the isolation and anxiety of life in a pandemic.

Thousands of people across the region volunteered to help support their communities through the pandemic, while others joined spontaneously together like the Brixton street who sang a physically distanced happy birthday to an elderly lady shielding from the virus outside her window. 

Indeed, lockdown inadvertently saw neighbours come together with mutual support networks often based in social media.

Existing groups helped those most in need with extra support from councils, while entirely new ones like Sewing4Kingston were born as dozens of eager hands helped make urgently needed Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to NHS and other frontline key workers.