FIGURES show the effects Covid has has on the Braintree district, one year on from the first lockdown. 

March 23, 2020, is a day which will live long in the memories of residents.

It was the first day we were officially ordered to "Stay at Home" and only leave our homes for essential reasons.

At the time we had little idea how long the restrictions would last and no way of predicting quite how much our lives would change over the next year.

Cases and deaths

The latest data is avilable up to March 22, 2021, according to these figures a total of 10,702 people have tested postive for Covid in the district since the pandemic began.

According to the Office for National Statistics, 437 deaths involving the virus were provisionally registered in the area up to March 13.

Of those, 301 occurred in hospitals, while there were 104 deaths in care homes and 24 at private homes.

A further eight deaths occurred in hospices, other community establishments or elsewhere.

It means deaths which happened outside hospital settings accounted for 31% of the overall toll.

Vaccinations

NHS data shows that 53,984 people have recieved at least one dose of the jab by March 14.

>>>Read more: How many people have been vaccinated in Braintree?

Of those vaccinated, 39,890 were aged 55 or over – 79% of the age group.

The labour market

By the end of May, businesses had already put around 20,500 employments on furlough in Braintree.

At the same time, people in the area had made roughly 6,500 claims made under the separate Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.

In January, 11,700 jobs were on furlough in Braintree, with 5,800 reliant on the SEISS scheme.

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Figures show that in early March last year, 2,025 people in Braintree were claiming out-of-work benefits.

By mid-January, that figure had risen more than double to 4,620.

House-prices

In Braintree, the average cost of a property was £277,761 in February, just before the Covid-19 crisis hit, according to Land Registry figures.

By December, that had risen to £298,180 – an increase of 7%.