Captain Tom Moore, Zoom calls and working from home: How the UK has coped with 100 days of lockdown

It was an unprecedented move that sent the country into lockdown and in doing so turned the world upside down.

It is now 100 days since the Prime Minister’s sombre announcement during which time our lives have changed, some irrevocably.

Families were forced to stay apart in order to protect one another, many businesses closed or had to furlough staff, the arts and sporting worlds were put on hold and home schooling became the norm.

And yet countless inspirational stories have emerged. None more so than that of Captain Tom Moore, the Keighley-born war veteran who back in April pledged to complete a 100-lap garden challenge at his Bedfordshire home by his 100th birthday at the end of the month.

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He had hoped to raise £1,000 for “the magnificent NHS” but the final amount was an astonishing £32.7m as he captured our hearts.

The sight of empty shops and deserted city centres, normally full of people, has become a familiar one. So, too, have face masks, whether being worn by police officers on patrol or people out buying their groceries.

At the same time local communities have come together and support groups have been set up in streets up and down the country, ensuring that elderly and vulnerable neighbours are looked after.

And we have new heroes to give thanks to, including the doctors and nurses working tirelessly in our hospitals, the dedicated care home staff and all those helping to keep the nation fed.

Millions of people have switched from commuting to offices to working from home, or have agreed flexible arrangements, and even part-time shifts.

Huge numbers of workers have enjoyed the benefits of swapping an office desk for their front room or garden shed, giving an immediate boost to their work-life balance.

Surveys throughout the past three months have shown the popularity of flexible, home-working, especially among parents, a trend experts believe is now embedded in the UK’s working culture.

The changes could help tackle the UK’s long-hours culture, reduce sickness absence and improve productivity – problems which have dogged industry for decades.

Even The Royal Family have had to change the way they go about their duties.

Public appearances were swapped for online video calls as the Windsors followed the rules and stayed at home.

Garden parties, investitures, state visits and foreign tours were put on hold as popular, traditional annual engagements drawing huge crowds, along with run-of-the-mill meet and greets and walkabouts, were deemed unsafe.

The Queen, who was reunited with the Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor Castle with a reduced household dubbed HMS Bubble, delivered two rare televised addresses to the nation just weeks apart.

She reassured the country that the virus would be overcome, telling those in isolation: “We will meet again.”

In another speech to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, she told how the message at the end of the war in Europe was “never give up, never despair”.

The monarch’s eldest son the Prince of Wales contracted coronavirus, but suffered only mild symptoms.

He spent the first week or so of lockdown staying apart from the Duchess of Cornwall at Birkhall in Scotland to prevent his wife catching the disease.

Charles lost his sense of taste and smell and revealed recently that it has yet to fully return.

Princess Beatrice’s wedding was postponed, and Princess Eugenie’s father-in-law George Brooksbank was in intensive care for nine weeks and on a ventilator for five after falling ill with coronavirus.

Eugenie has thanked NHS staff on the front line for risking their lives to save him.

The last few months have been unlike anything most of us have ever experienced in our lifetime.

The pandemic is likely to be with us for some time to come, but as the lockdown restrictions begin to ease we can at least glimpse a chink of light at the end of the tunnel.

And as we all move forward we do so knowing, in the words of Sir Tom Moore, that the sun will shine again and the clouds will go away.

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