UK Covid 'Ground Zero': How York has bounced back two years after recording Britain's first cases

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Bricklayers spread out along the edge of York Minster wear Covid masks as they work. Walking around the 627-year-old building is now one of the only indications that the last two years have been somewhat unusual for life in the medieval cathedral city.

Elsewhere in York, runners roam the streets, buskers have returned to the main thoroughfare and the famous 'Ghost Walk' through the city's cobbled streets is back in business.

Today marks two years since the first cases of Covid in the UK were recorded in the city. On the evening of 29 January 2020, two Yorkshire Ambulance Service paramedics were called to the 196-room Staycity apartment hotel on York's Paragon Street.

That afternoon, a 23-year-old Chinese citizen had called the NHS 111 hotline from his hotel room worried about symptoms that looked suspiciously like the new virus.

The York University student, known in medical journals only as patient "B," reported a fever, dry cough and muscle pain. His 50-year-old mother, known as patient "A," suffered from similar symptoms.

Dressed in white hazmat suits, paramedics took the couple through the hotel's fire escape to a special infectious disease unit at Castle Hill Hospital near Hull.

The duo had returned from Wuhan, the epicenter of the initial coronavirus outbreak, just as the Chinese city was reporting its first Covid-related deaths. The city of York suddenly found itself at the center of national panic.

"When we found out, we were very, very worried," says Norman Clay, who lives just outside the city center. “We just couldn't believe it to be honest.

“Most people stayed home but I had already planned to go to London that week and tested positive as soon as I got back. Within a few weeks the whole country seemed to have it. And then, of course, the closure came and everything was closed.

Yorkshire and the Humber's Covid rates are currently the third highest of any region in the country. The area reported a record number of coronavirus cases earlier this month, with 23,187 infections on January 4.

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But as in other parts of the UK, a large number of cases caused by the Omicron variant has not largely translated into the large number of hospitalizations and deaths seen at the start of the coronavirus crisis.

Signs that the worst of the pandemic may be over mean the city has finally started to recover from nearly two years of on-and-off restrictions.

Ye Olde Starre Inne, York's oldest pub, has just enjoyed a record Christmas. Even on a chilly Monday afternoon, small queues form at either end of the narrow alleyway leading to the 16th-century building as patrons stream in and out for a pint.

In Shambles Market, voted Britain's most picturesque street, a group of American tourists crowds around Mei Liang's jewelery stall trying on bracelets. "I think it's finally over," she says. "I've been pretty busy since the New Year and I feel good, I feel happy."

Footfall in the inner city was down just 5 percent in December compared to pre-pandemic levels, far more than the national average of minus 22 percent, according to Sarah Loftus, CEO of Make it York.

"It's been a turbulent 24 months, but York is really picking up," she says.

But some companies worry that the pandemic has left permanent scars on people's confidence.

“Look at the number of people walking around wearing masks,” says Des Jarman, who runs a teddy bear stall at the market. "I mean, it's a freezing day in the middle of January, a mask isn't going to do much.

He warns that “Covid has become as divisive as Brexit”. "Some people are just more concerned now and that's affecting how much they buy," he says. “We couldn't do anything for a long time, business was paralyzed. The fact that Christmas came this year was good for our company, but what happens in the future is still up in the air, isn't it?

John Bull Fudge and Toffee Makers, which sits in the shadow of York Minster's famous Rose Window, and the Vanilla Cafe across the street are closing early for the first time this year.

"International tourists don't come as much, but we still have a lot of local tourists," says Jill Fowles, who works at the historic confectionery. “I don't know why it's so quiet today. It's probably just the cold, but you never know."