THE UK is marking one year since the first coronavirus lockdown was announced.

On 23 March 2020 Boris Johnson outlined measures to stop the spread of Covid-19. Since then, the UK’s official death toll has risen from 364 to 126,172. 

With the lockdown have come tough restrictions on socialising, closures of schools, pubs and shops with many rules currently still in place.

A minute’s silence will be held at midday as part of a day of reflection.

A year on, Mr Johnson has praised the “great spirit” shown since that moment and he offered his condolences to those who have been bereaved during the pandemic.

People are also being encouraged to stand on their doorsteps at 20:00 GMT with phones, candles and torches to signify a “beacon of remembrance”.

It is being organised by end-of-life charity Marie Curie.

The prime minister, who himself spent time in hospital seriously ill with Covid, said the last year had taken a “huge toll on us all” and said the anniversary was an opportunity to reflect on the year – “one of the most difficult in our country’s history”.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC Breakfast the last year had been “probably the hardest year in a generation” but treatments and vaccines now provided “hope”. 

On the day the first nationwide lockdown, it was announced that 340 people had died with the virus. That total was later adjusted upwards when the way that figure is measured was changed during the summer.

From the start, ministers said they were putting their faith in the measures slowing down the impact of the virus while scientists in the UK and around the world found a way to combat what had become both a threat to health and to the population’s freedom to enjoy life.

That came with the development of several vaccines – and the UK has already seen 28 million people receive a first dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines.

Over the months, scientists, politicians and the public have assessed several key figures that are updated each day showing the number of new cases, the numbers in hospital, how many are being treated in ventilation beds, and how many have died within 28 days of a positive Covid test. 

In recent weeks all of those measures are down – as a result of the lockdown and the effects of the vaccine rollout – but on Monday Mr Johnson warned that the effects of a third wave of coronavirus will “wash up on our shores” from Europe and said the country should be under “no illusion” the country will feel the effect of increasing cases on the continent.