Oxford: A year on since lockdown

It has been an extraordinary 12 months which has changed our lives in terms of health, financial wellbeing and simple social contact with family and friends. It has long-lasting effects on society, affecting everything from jobs to education and has had a massive impact on the economy, with many popular businesses disappearing.

It has also been a year in which everyone became interested in the daily numbers of the pandemic. One year on, what does the data tell us about how Covid-19 has hit Oxford?

Coronavirus cases

Since the early days of the pandemic, the Oxford Mail has provided its readers with a daily update on the number of new coronavirus cases and, sadly, reported deaths.

The figures have made for stark reading.

Up to yesterday morning, 32,834 people in Oxfordshire had tested positive for Covid-19, Public Health England data shows.

According to the Office for National Statistics, 195 deaths involving the virus were provisionally registered in the area up to March 13.

Of those, 110 occurred in hospitals, while there were 63 deaths in care homes and 19 at private homes.

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

It means deaths which occurred outside hospital settings accounted for 44 per cent of the total.

Health experts have said ‘excess deaths’ – the number of deaths above the annual expected number – are a better measure of the overall impact of the coronavirus pandemic than simply looking at mortality directly linked to Covid-19. ONS figures on this show that 1,064 people died of all causes in Oxford between March 2020 and February 2021 – the latest available data.

That was 16 per cent above the 916 deaths which occurred over the same period a year earlier.

Vaccines

Separate NHS data shows that 46,097 people in Oxford had received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by March 14. Half of the UK population have had a first jab.

Jobs

As well as being the biggest health crisis in decades, the coronavirus pandemic has also brought rapid change to the UK’s jobs market.

Unemployment rates have surged along with a rise in job uncertainty, and many more people are seeking support from unemployment benefits.

One of the defining elements of the Government’s response to the spread of Covid-19 was the launch of emergency income support schemes to protect jobs. Back in March last year, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the Coronavirus Job Retention, or furlough, scheme, to help firms struggling with the impact of the virus.

By the end of May, just two months later, businesses had already put about 16,000 employees on furlough in Oxford.

At the same time, people in the area had made roughly 3,600 claims under the separate Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.

In January, 10,000 jobs were on furlough in Oxford, with 3,300 reliant on the SEISS scheme.

ONS figures show that in early March last year, 2,115 people in Oxford were claiming out-of-work benefits. By mid-January, that figure had risen more than double to 4,650.

The figures include those aged 16 to 64 on Jobseeker’s Allowance and some Universal Credit claimants, who are unemployed and seeking work or employed but with low earnings.

The ONS has regularly cautioned that changes to Universal Credit in response to the virus mean more people can get the benefits while still being employed, which mean the figures can’t be used to measure unemployment on a local basis.

It also said a small number of people who can claim both JSA and UC could be counted twice.

House prices

The property market has also felt the impact of the pandemic, with the average UK house price rising to a record £252,000 at the end of last year.

The ONS said Government support schemes, particularly the stamp duty holiday, may be a factor behind the national rise.

In Oxford, the average cost of a property was £419,973 in February, just before the Covid-19 crisis hit, according to Land Registry figures. By December, that had risen to £443,509 – an increase of 6per cent.

Eat Out to Help Out

People in Oxfordshire got more than a million meals discounted through the Government’s month-long Eat Out to Help Out scheme.

On Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in August, diners could get a half price meal at eateries signed up to the scheme and save up to £10 per person.

It was designed to boost the struggling hospitality industry when the first lockdown lifted. It was so successful that some restaurants extended the deal, making up the shortfall themselves.

However, the scheme has since been criticised for encouraging people to mingle and further spread coronavirus.

Data from HM Revenues and Customs shows around 1,113,000 cut price meals were claimed at businesses in Oxfordshire.

It meant diners saved an average of £5.66 per meal on average.

In Oxford, 204 restaurants that don’t have more than 24 branches, took part and 365,000 meals were claimed – saving £2,041,000.

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