Coronavirus pandemic; 2 years later

It has been 2 years since the Coronavirus pandemic reached the UK, with over 20 million people contracting the virus and 165,000 dying as a result of it. March 2020 saw Prime Minister Boris Johnson ban all non-essential contact and travel, ordering people to begin working from home and for students to continue their learning online. Though rules and regulations around the country have been scrapped, the virus remains with 17,685 individuals currently resident in hospital. 

Credit: Financial Times

To date 73% of the British public are fully vaccinated, 78% have received a first dose and 57% have also received a booster dose. Due to extreme pressure on the NHS and health services due to the pandemic, this has left millions of people around the country unable to access health services or continue treatment for diseases such as cancer. It was recorded that the pressure on the health service led to 4000 excess deaths from conditions and resulted in 32,000 cancer patients who should have begun treatment are still waiting. Hospitals were also instructed to discharge non covid patients who were not in critical condition in order to handle the huge demand for hospital beds.

Credit: The Independant

However, despite NHS doctors and nurses working day and night to save lives of those suffering from the disease, another crisis was also occurring throughout Britain. A mental health crisis. Due to lockdowns and travel restrictions this resulted in many being unable to visit family and friends.  A study conducted nine months into the pandemic revealed that one in four adults said they had felt lonely since the pandemic began.

Though physically the number of sufferers is declining, the long-lasting effect 2 years of constant on and off isolation will have an everlasting effect on many. 

Across the UK, 1 in 6 adults reported feeling depressed during summer 2021, which is drastically higher to previous years. The Office of National Statistics also found that primary school students who experienced long COVID since March 2020 were also more likely to have at least one mental health disorder then those who had not suffered. 

Despite the support that was put into place for students, the accessibility was not enough for many, resulting in many choosing to leave university and defer. 

A survey conducted by the ONS found that over 53% of students reported being dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their social experiences in the Autumn term of 2020. Students also reported having lower levels of satisfaction, life worthwhile and happiness and a conclusion from 3 surveys found that over half the students who took part reported their well-being and mental health had worsened since the beginning of the pandemic.  

Nightline, a phone line run by student volunteers reported a mass increase in calls from students who discussed suicidal thoughts and who were suffering from severe anxiety. Students were also told that throughout the term they could no longer visit family freely, a big shock to students who had become adjusted to returning home every weekend to visit family and friends.

Credit: University of Exeter

Aaron Ray, a 20-year-old student at Coventry University said. “It was very lonely and depressing since I could not meet up with friends or family and had nothing to do except sit inside all day”

“I feel like the situation was much tougher on university students especially since so many of us live alone in small flats, it’s not easy to control your mental health when your sat in a small room staring at the same walls all day with no one to speak to” 

Students at the University of Manchester have claimed that instead of the university assisting students who remained living in halls throughout lockdown, they instead made the situation “worse on the student”, further damaging their mental health. Students at the university have also claimed they enforced ‘prison like’ metal fences around the university which made them feel trapped and further isolated. Students were also not allowed to leave the campus and had to make other arrangements to have food and groceries delivered. The university however claimed at the time that the gates were not intended to make students feel isolated but to prevent non-resident having access to the accommodation.

2 years on and many students feel they have missed out on the “student experience” and that university chancellors did not do enough to help university students. “It’s sad that we did not get the experience that is so talked about before arriving at university, we did not get the same opportunities to not only socialise but also have the same learning experience as everyone else” explained 19-year-old Coventry university Kingston Smith.