Relative odds of respondents having a positive opinion of UK government decision-making during the COVID-19 lockdown, by demographic group.

The UK Government has been holding daily press briefings in order to provide updates on the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and outline any new measures being put in place to deal with the outbreak. Boris Johnson announced that the UK would be going into lockdown in a broadcast on March 23 which was watched live by more than half of the respondents to a daily survey. On June 28, just ** percent of respondents said they had not watched or read about the previous day's briefing. For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

On May 10, 2020, the Prime Minister of the British government, Boris Johnson, announced plans for the easing of coronavirus lockdown rules. According to a survey carried out in Great Britain following this announcement, 46 percent of Brits think that the changes go too far in relaxing the rules, while 35 percent believe the balance is about right. The latest number of cases in the UK can be found here. For further information about the coronavirus pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

The lockdown measures announced by the UK government in an effort to reduce the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) led to a dramatic decrease in footfall to retail and recreation locations in the country, such as restaurants, cafes, shopping centers, museums, theme parks, and libraries. Most recently, on April 17, 2020, mobility decreased by ** percent in these locations. Similarly, footfall to groceries and pharmacies experienced a significant decline in that week too, if not as dramatic and other retail locations.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Fact and Figures page.

Context

COVID-19 is a Pandemic which was spread worldwide in the early months of 2020, Which has had a major impact on the United Kingdom. As the UK has recently carried out wide spread vaccination and ended Lockdown I am providing the recent COVID-19 figures.

Content

Several Datasets are provided, focusing on Deaths, Cases, Hospitalisation and Vaccination. Files often protray the same information but from a different reference point. For example for Deaths there is one displaying figures from people who died using there positive date as a reference point, whereas the other is using the date of death.

Acknowledgements

These datasets was scrapped off the UK Gov website in regards to COVID-19. For those looking to build a more complex project using a constant data flow, they do provide an API which may assist.

Inspiration

Possible area to explore are: What was the Impact of Vaccines on the COVID-19 Pandemic? What was the Impact of a Lockdown on the COVID-19 Pandemic? Which Nation managed the spread of COVID-19 the best?

Licence

Open Government Licence V3.0

National lockdown measures announced by the UK government on March 23, 2020 halted all but "essential businesses" in an effort to reduce the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). According to the results of a recent survey conducted with UK adults, in addition to supermarkets which were considered essential by ** respondents, cornershops/newsagents were regarded as essential businesses by ** percent of those who took part in the survey. Of other retail shops, sports equipment stores and garden centers were largely considered non-essential during the COVID-19 crisis lockdown.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Fact and Figures page.

Objectives: To investigate factors associated with adherence to self-isolation and lockdown measures due to COVID-19 in the UK. To investigate factors associated with anxiety, depression, and self-reported general health during “lockdown” due to COVID-19 in the UK.Study design: Online cross-sectional survey.Methods: Data were collected between 6th and 7th May 2020. A total of 2240 participants living in the UK aged 18 years or older were recruited from YouGov's online research panel.Results: A total of 217 people (9.7%) reported that they or someone in their household had symptoms of COVID-19 (cough or high temperature/fever) in the last 7 days. Of these people, 75.1% had left the home in the last 24 h (defined as non-adherent). Men were more likely to be non-adherent, as were people who were less worried about COVID-19, and who perceived a smaller risk of catching COVID-19. Adherence was associated with having received help from someone outside your household. Results should be taken with caution as there was no evidence for associations when controlling for multiple analyses. Of people reporting no symptoms in the household, 24.5% had gone out shopping for non-essentials in the last week (defined as non-adherent). Factors associated with non-adherence and with a higher total number of outings in the last week included decreased perceived effectiveness of government ‘lockdown’ measures, decreased perceived severity of COVID-19 and decreased estimates of how many other people were following lockdown rules. Having received help was associated with better adherence.In this sample, 21·9% (n=458, 95% CI [20·1% to 23·7%]) reported probable anxiety (scored three or over on the GAD-2); while 23·5% (n=494, 95% CI [21·7% to 25·3]) reported probable depression (scored three or over on the PHQ-2). Poorer mental health was associated with greater financial hardship during the lockdown, thinking that you would lose contact with friends or family if you followed Government measures, more conflict with household members during the lockdown, less sense of community with people in your neighbourhood, and lower perceived effectiveness of Government measures. Females and those who were younger were likely to report higher levels of anxiety and depression. The majority of participants reported their general health as “good” (as measured by the first item of the SF-36). Poorer self-reported general health was associated with psychological distress, greater worry about COVID-19 and markers of inequality.Conclusions: Adherence to self-isolation is poor. As we move into a new phase of contact tracing and self-isolation, it is essential that adherence is improved. Communications should aim to increase knowledge about actions to take when symptomatic or if you have been in contact with a possible COVID-19 case. They should also emphasise the risk of catching and spreading COVID-19 when out and about and the effectiveness of preventative measures. Using volunteer networks effectively to support people in isolation may promote adherence.Rates of self-reported anxiety and depression in the UK during the lockdown were greater than population norms. Reducing financial hardship, promoting social connectedness, and increasing solidarity with neighbours and household members may help ease rifts within the community which are associated with distress, thereby improving mental health. Reducing inequality may also improve general health.

According to a survey carried in Great Britain in April 2020, ** percent of Brits thought that the government should have reopening schools as the top priority when it starts to gradually loosen restrictions, while ** percent want the government to encourage non-essential workers to go back to work as the top priority. The latest number of cases in the UK can be found here. For further information about the coronavirus pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

The lockdown measures announced by the UK government in an effort to reduce the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) led to a dramatic decrease in footfall to grocery stores and pharmacies in the country, including food warehouses, farmers markets, specialty food shops, drug stores. Over the ***** week period between ******** and ********, mobility in these locations saw slight improvement. Grocery stores and pharmacies are among the "essential businesses" that are allowed to operate during the lockdown in the UK.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Fact and Figures page.

This paper draws upon the concept of recreancy to examine the mental well-being of university students during the Covid-19 pandemic. Briefly, recreancy is loss of societal trust that results when institutional actors can no longer be counted on to perform their responsibilities. Our study of mental well-being and recreancy focuses on the role of universities and government regulators within the education sector. We surveyed 600 UK students attending 161 different public higher education providers in October 2020 during a time when many UK students were isolated in their residences and engaged in online learning. We assessed student well-being using the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (scored 7–35) and found the mean score to be 19.9 [95% confidence interval (CI) 19.6, 20.2]. This level of well-being indicates that a significant proportion of UK students face low levels of mental well-being. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis indicates that high recreancy—measured as a low trust in universities and the government—is associated with low levels of mental well-being across the student sample. While these findings are suggestive, they are also important and we suggest that government and university leaders should not only work to increase food and housing security during the Covid-19 pandemic, but also consider how to combat various sector trends that might intensify recreancy.

Ipsos UK conducted a series of six waves of UK-wide online surveys through the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic on behalf of the Department for Transport as part of the All Change? research programme. The research programme was designed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to measure and explore the reasons for current and intended changes in travel behaviour amongst the British public.

Fieldwork for the first wave took place in May/June 2020 while the sixth and final wave took place in November 2021. All survey interviews were conducted online withadults aged 16-75 years old across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The data are longitudinal; however, they include additional fresh samples at each wave. The data are provided here in a single dataset file covering all six waves.

Respondents at waves 2-6 were drawn from those that had taken part in previous waves and agreed to be recontacted. While wave 2 involved 'top-up' sampling to boost the overall sample to approximately 4,000, this was not the case at wave 3 when the sample was drawn exclusively from the longitudinal cohort and contained no 'fresh' samples. At wave 4, a targeted 'top-up' exercise was undertaken to bolster the numbers among a selection of groups and geographies available for recontact at wave 5 (this reached 564 respondents). Waves 5 and 6 also involved a full 'top-up' exercise to secure samples of over 4,000.

At each wave, the survey questionnaire was translated into the Welsh language with respondents in Wales given the choice of whether to complete the survey in Welsh or in English.

Further information and reports are available on the GOV.UK web site.

Themes and quotes from participants on the impact of covid-19 and falls on home stairs.

Panic-buying and stockpiling during Covid disrupted the supply chain, causing food shortages and impacting the vulnerable. The government faced criticism for its lack of food system resilience, poor communications planning, and reliance on retailers. The British media frequently reported on panic-buying during early lockdown stages in 2020 and throughout Covid. The media play an important role in communicating information to the British public during times of crisis and influence public opinion. This mixed-method study examined English media portrayal of panic-buying, analysing text and visual data from six of the highest-circulating newspapers from March to July 2020. It reviewed reporting trends, use of imagery, themes, and prominent stakeholder voices. Content analysis of 209 articles showed that coverage was dominated by popular and left-wing press, with 89% of articles using sensationalised language and 68% coded as negative. In a subset of 125 articles, visual imagery showed empty shelves in 64% of analysed images, reinforcing the impression of food shortages. Supermarkets were the most quoted stakeholders, appearing in 62% of articles. Contradictions included reports of no food shortages alongside images of empty shelves and early newspaper advice encouraging stockpiling. Reporting peaked between March 16–22, 2020. Six key themes were identified: supermarket prominence, food supply/access, food policy, individual behaviour, socio-economic impacts, and panic-buying drivers—all themes had relevance to food system resilience. Future civil unrest linked to food-system challenges, potentially driven by climate change, conflict, or political instability, could see panic-buying play a significant role. Research on media portrayals of panic-buying can help policymakers enhance communication strategies and identify critical issues during crises. The Covid pandemic revealed crucial lessons about the media’s potential role in shaping public behaviour, highlighting the need for stronger government communication and collaboration with both the media and retailers to ensure consistent messaging, particularly to protect vulnerable groups.

Risk perception sub-scales with final factor solutions.

Multiple linear regression analysis of predictors of change (Δ) in %times in range and CV for blood glucose from pre-lockdown to lockdown for the combined adult and paediatric cohorts (n = 145).