Portrait of the year: Coronavirus, falling statues, banned Easter eggs and compulsory Scotch eggs

January

Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, signed the EU withdrawal agreement, sent from Brussels by train. Sajid Javid, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, promised ‘an infrastructure revolution’ in the Budget. An American drone killed Qassem Soleimani, an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard commander, near Baghdad airport. Iran carelessly shot down a Ukrainian airliner taking off from Tehran, killing 176. Bush fires raged in New South Wales. Cases of acute viral pneumonia were noticed in Wuhan in central China.

February

Eighty-three British evacuees from Wuhan were quarantined on the Wirral. The Department of Health classified Covid-19 as a ‘serious and imminent threat’. In Hubei 68 million people were made to stay at home. A field hospital for 1,000 was built in Wuhan in nine days. The Diamond Princess cruise ship was quarantined in Yokohama, with 3,711 on board; 700 eventually caught Covid-19 and 14 died. Rishi Sunak became Chancellor when Sajid Javid resigned rather than see his special advisers sacked. Carrie Symonds, aged 31, Boris Johnson’s girlfriend, announced she would have a baby. After the State of the Union address by President Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker, stood behind him tearing it up.

March

When ten people were known to have died of Covid-19, the Prime Minister said that families would ‘lose loved ones before their time’. No one could leave their homes except for ‘very limited purposes’. Shops were closed, with exceptions, and places of worship. Some police tried to stop the sale of Easter eggs. Boris Johnson contracted the disease, as did the Prince of Wales, the Health Secretary Matt Hancock, the government’s chief medical adviser Chris Whitty, and Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister’s chief strategist. Plans were made to supply 1.5 million vulnerable people with food, with uneven success. Rishi Sunak announced a furlough scheme. Local elections were postponed to 2021.