UK residents reflect on life changes from pandemic

Five years after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, many people in the UK are reflecting on how their lives have changed. The BBC News team has invited the public to share their experiences during this time. The first confirmed COVID-19 death in the UK occurred on January 9, 2020. This was shortly after China reported a similar case involving a man from Wuhan. By the end of January 2020, global deaths from the virus exceeded 100. From April 2020 to February 2022, over 44 million people in the UK are estimated to have contracted COVID-19. Official figures show that nearly 227,000 deaths included COVID-19 as a cause on death certificates. To measure the impact of the pandemic, people also looked at "excess deaths." This term refers to deaths that occurred above the average for the past five years. Data shows that between 2020 and February 2023, death rates in the UK rose by more than 5%.