a year later in West Norfolk

How has the pandemic affected us?

Today (March 23) marks one year since Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that everyone in the UK had to stay at home for the first time, as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the country.

It was an extraordinary 12 months that changed our lives in terms of health, financial well-being and simple social contact with family and friends.

And this year, everyone has been interested in the daily pandemic figures. One year on, what does the data tell us about how Covid-19 has hit King's Lynn and West Norfolk?

Cases and deaths

Since the early days of the pandemic, we have received regular updates on the number of new positive cases and, unfortunately, deaths reported.

In King's Lynn and West Norfolk, 7,384 people had tested positive for Covid-19 as of the morning of March 18, according to data from Public Health England.

According to the National Statistics Office, 431 virus-related deaths have been provisionally recorded in the region up to March 13.

Of these, 337 occurred in hospitals, while 75 deaths took place in nursing homes and 13 in private homes.

Six other deaths occurred in hospices, other community settings or elsewhere.

This means that deaths occurring outside the hospital environment represented 22% of the total toll.

Health experts have repeatedly said that “excess deaths” – the number of deaths above the expected annual number – are a better measure of the overall impact of the coronavirus pandemic than simply looking at mortality directly linked to Covid-19.

ONS figures show 2,095 people died from all causes in King's Lynn and West Norfolk between March 2020 and February 2021 – the latest data available.

This figure represents 15% more than the 1,827 deaths that occurred during the same period a year earlier.

The work market

As well as being the biggest health crisis in decades, the coronavirus pandemic has also led to rapid changes in the UK labor market.

Unemployment rates have soared alongside increasing job insecurity, and more people are seeking unemployment benefits.

A key element of the government's response to the spread of Covid-19 has been the launch of emergency income support programs to protect jobs.

In March last year, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, or “furlough” scheme, to help businesses struggling with the impact of the virus.

By the end of May, just two months later, businesses had already furloughed around 15,700 jobs in King's Lynn and West Norfolk.

At the same time, residents of the region had filed around 5,800 applications under the separate income support scheme for the self-employed.

In January, 9,300 jobs were furloughed in King's Lynn and West Norfolk, of which 5,200 were dependent on the SEISS scheme.

ONS figures show that at the start of March last year, 2,040 people in King's Lynn and West Norfolk were claiming unemployment benefit.

By mid-January, that figure had more than doubled to 4,195.

The figures include people aged 16 to 64 on unemployment benefit and some Universal Credit claimants, who are unemployed and looking for work or in work but on low incomes.

The ONS has regularly warned that changes to Universal Credit in response to the virus mean more people can receive benefits while still being in work, meaning the figures cannot be used to measure unemployment at the local scale.

He also said a small number of people who were eligible for both JSA and UC could be counted twice.

What about real estate prices?

The property market has also felt the impact of the pandemic, with the average price of a house in the UK hitting a record $252,000 at the end of last year.

The ONS said government support schemes, particularly the stamp duty holiday, could be a factor behind the national rise.

In King's Lynn and West Norfolk, the average cost of a property was $214,650 in February, just before the Covid-19 crisis hit, according to land registry figures.

By December, this figure had risen to 237,037, an increase of 10%.

Vaccinations

After an extremely difficult year for many of us, vaccination offers a glimmer of hope for a life free from restrictions.

NHS data shows 69,444 people in King's Lynn and West Norfolk had received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by March 14.

More than 25 million people in the UK have received their first jab.

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