History of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: Omits progress after April 2022. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (May 2022)

Part of a series on the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies
History Responses Legislation Statistics (Part of the global COVID-19 pandemic)
Locations London Countries England Scotland Wales Northern Ireland Crown Dependencies Guernsey Isle of Man Jersey British Overseas Territories Anguilla Akrotiri and Dhekelia Bermuda British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Falkland Islands Gibraltar Montserrat Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Turks and Caicos Islands Pitcairn Islands British Overseas Territories without confirmed cases British Antarctic Territory South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
Timelines United Kingdom January-June 2020 July–December 2020 January-June 2021 July–December 2021 January-June 2022 July-December 2022 2023 2024 England January-June 2020 July–December 2020 2021 2022 Scotland 2020 2021 2022 Wales 2020 2021 2022 Northern Ireland 2020 2021 2022
Key topics Healthcare Vaccination Temporary hospitals COVID passports Responses Government response Contract controversies Lockdown Public inquiry Contact tracing Military (Domestic, Overseas) Impacts Society Economy Education Politics Retail
COVID-19 portal  Category
v t e

This article outlines the history of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom (granular timelines can be found here). Though later reporting indicated that there may have been some cases dating from late 2019,^[1][2] COVID-19 was confirmed to be spreading in the UK by the end of January 2020.^[3] The country was initially relatively slow implementing restrictions but a legally enforced stay-at-home order had been introduced by late March.^[4][5][6] Restrictions were steadily eased across the UK in late spring and early summer that year.^{[7][8][9][10][11][12]}

By the Autumn, COVID-19 cases were again rising.^[13] This led to the creation of new regulations along with the introduction of the concept of a local lockdown, a variance in restrictions in a more specific geographic location than the four nations of the UK.^{[14][15][16][17][18][19]} Lockdowns took place in Wales, England and Northern Ireland later that season.^[20][21][22] In part due to a new variant of the virus,^[23][24] cases were still increasing^[25] and the NHS had come under severe strain by late December.^{[26][27][28][29][30]} This led to a tightening of restrictions across the UK.^{[31][32][33][34]}

The first COVID-19 vaccine was approved and began its rollout in the UK in early December.^[35][36] 15 million vaccine doses had been given to predominantly those most vulnerable to the virus by mid-February.^[37] 6 months later more than 75% of adults in the UK were fully vaccinated against COVID-19.^[38] Restrictions began to ease from late February onwards and almost all had ended in Great Britain by August.^{[39][40][41][42]} The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant drove an increase in daily case numbers that remained high through autumn, although the vaccination programme led to a lower mortality rate.^[43][44] The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant arrived in early December, driving a further increase in cases.^[45][46][47]