2020 - An Overview - Part 1

by Flixy Coote

Although it may be a while since we saw the passing of the new year, it wasn't actually all that long ago and it was a year that shook the world. So here is a short overview of one of the most momentous years of my life.  

January - The start of 2020, a month that got the year off on a bit of a low. In early January, tensions between the US and Iran began to rise after an airstrike incinerated the car of  General Qassem Suleiman which led to Iran firing two rockets at the US military base in Iran. However January probably is much more known for the bushfires in Australia, destroying 18.6 million hectares of land by March, in total the area of Cuba. It killed over 3 billion animals altogether, raging for over 80 days. It killed 445 people. The month also saw the death of Koby Bryant

February -  Although coronavirus was around in January, it properly started to become known to people in February. Coronavirus was actually named COVID - 19, and the first American died of Covid. It had spread to 47 countries with three cases in the UK. But there was a triumph, some of the Australian bushfires were put out after rain ending a drought. Locusts swept across Pakistan, Yemen, Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya, killing off crops after the worst Locust swarms in decades destroying crops, spreading famines across the region. 

March - Before February, most cases of coronavirus were contained in China but March was the arrival properly of it in Europe. The economy across the world also had started to fall, as countries began to lockdown in the hope of slowing down the spread. Right at the beginning of the March the UK Government held a COBRA meeting to discuss action on Covid after 36 reported cases. On the 6th of March, the first death from COVID was reported, the Government moving from the containment to delay phase. On the 23rd of March, the UK went into national lockdown with schools closing and everyone advised “to Stay home, protect the NHS and save lives.”  Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock both tested positive for Covid.

April - Lockdown life continued, people started to become used to living in lockdown as the US faced an economic disaster. The Nightingale Hospital opened up in London, but did not have much use and was shut down quite soon afterwards. Queen Elizabeth ll gave a broadcast to the nation, something she had only done on four previous occasions. Boris Johnson, after being admitted to the hospital for Covid, entered the ICU but was discharged later in the month. Towards the end of the month, the first human trials for the vaccine were done in Oxford. The UK remained in lockdown but started to see the effects of it as infections slowly started to fall.