IT was the year when vaccines had promised a return to normality - or at the very least, something much closer to it: a ‘new normal’.
But as Scotland entered 2021, the country was in the grip of another national lockdown after the rapid spread of a new Covid variant - seemingly sprung months before from an immuno-suppressed patient treated for the virus in Kent - left festive plans in tatters.
Families who had been promised a five-day window over Christmas where restrictions on household mixing would be temporarily lifted had been reduced to celebrating on Christmas Day only, but even then with a legal maximum of eight people from three households and strong advice to “minimise” numbers.
From one minute after midnight on Boxing Day, mainland Scotland had been plunged back into Level Four with all non-essential retail and hospitality businesses such as pubs, cinemas, restaurants, gyms and hairdressers once again shut down; non-essential travel between local authorities in Scotland and to other parts of the UK was banned; Hogmanay parties were cancelled; and the school holidays extended and a return to classrooms replaced once again by online learning.
READ MORE: Scientists cautiously optimistic as Scotland's Omicron admissions 70 per cent lower than expected
In an address to the nation delivered from St Andrews House on the Saturday before Christmas, Nicola Sturgeon had warned that the emergence of the ‘Kent’ strain of Covid represented “probably the most serious - and potentially dangerous - juncture we have faced since March”.
The variant - formally known as B.1.1.7 but later renamed as Alpha - had 17 mutations compared to the original Wuhan strain, including eight which altered the shape of the spike protein which vaccines had been developed to recognise. It was 1.5 times more transmissible than ‘Wuhan’ Covid, and 1.6 times more likely to lead to death.
By January 8, confirmed cases of Covid in Scotland were peaking at a then-record 2,346 per day. Mass community testing for the virus was never available during the first wave, so the true scale of infections then is uncertain.
Nonetheless, the catastrophe wreaked by the Alpha variant soon became clear as Covid hospital admissions rocketed to 200 a day by January 12 - exceeding April 2020 levels and even now an all-time high.
The “race between the vaccine and the variant” was on.
The UK had controversially decided to administer Covid vaccine doses 12 weeks apart instead of the three week intervals used in clinical trials.
The move meant that first doses could be given to many more of the most vulnerable people during January and February as the rollout extended from older care home residents to elderly people in the community.
By February 1, Scots aged 70 to 79 were being invited to come forward as new mass vaccination centres launched at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) and Aberdeen’s P&J Live.
The NHS Louisa Jordan in Glasgow - initially housed in a converted Scottish Exhibition Centre (SEC) and later moved to the SSE Hydro - had already been carrying out 1000-5000 vaccinations a day since December.
Analysis would later establish that the UK’s gamble had paid off: a single dose of either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines provided around 50 per cent protection against symptomatic infection caused by the Alpha variant.
By early February, around 15% of adults in Britain had received a single shot compared 3% in the EU, and research would later discover than delaying the time between doses actually triggered a stronger antibody response.
In February, attention also turned to how the UK would protect its borders once international travel resumed.
Leaky border controls had been seen as one of the UK’s major failings when the pandemic first began in 2020, but there was discord between the governments at Holyrood and Westminster over how far measures such as quarantine should go.
READ MORE: 'Boosted' 10 times less likely to be hospitalised with Covid than double-jabbed
The Scottish Government wanted 10-day isolation in hotel quarantine to cover all international arrivals to minimise the import of new variants; the UK Government favoured a traffic light system where a limited number of countries were designated ‘red’.
On February 15, the policy came into force with passengers flying directly into Scotland from anywhere overseas required to pay £1,750 for 10 days in a quarantine hotel.
However, a loophole meant that anyone flying into airports in the rest of the UK or Ireland from a non-red list overseas country could catch a connecting flight on to Scotland and circumvent hotel quarantine.
They were still expected to self-isolate voluntarily for 10 days once home or arrived at their place of accommodation, but checks were limited.
Given that the vast majority of international flights into the UK - and even more so during the pandemic - land in London, the policy did little to prevent the import of variants into Scotland.
A Freedom of Information response would later reveal that, by June 8 this year, 3,490 travellers had stayed in hotel quarantine in Scotland but just 76 cases of Covid were detected among them.
In March, the world became aware of a new Covid variant, initially dubbed the Indian “double mutant” due to two distinctive changes in key areas of its spike protein. It would later be named Delta.
READ MORE: Glasgow's 'Indian' variant outbreak is warning against 'traffic light' travel
Samples had been collected in Maharashtra state, to the west of the country, with virologist Shahid Jameel noting that the “double mutation in key areas of the virus’s spike protein may increase these risks and allow the virus to escape the immune system”.
Authorities in India initially downplayed any link between the new strain and a rise in cases evident since early March.
India had previously been touted as evidence of herd immunity after a large wave in later 2020 was followed by an apparent disappearance of the virus, despite low vaccine coverage.
But between the beginning of March and the end of April, as cases exploded more than 24-fold in India and the previously dominant Alpha variant was pushed to the sidelines, it became clear that a new, much more transmissible Covid variant had evolved.
By the time of Prince Philip’s socially-distanced funeral at Windsor on April 17, there were 77 confirmed cases of the Delta variant in the UK - including four in Scotland. By May 17, that had risen to 2,323.
The UK Government faced criticism for failing to add India to the red list for travel until April 23 - two weeks later than Bangladesh and Pakistan, whose Covid rates were lower.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson had been scheduled to visit India from April 25-28 for post-Brexit trade talks with Indian PM Narendra Modi, though Downing Street insisted this was not the cause of the delay after the trip was cancelled.
The spectre of the Delta variant arrived just as Scotland was taking its first steps out of a four-month lockdown, with the move from Level Four to Level Three taking place on April 26.
READ MORE: Hospitality rules unveiled for Level Three lockdown
Gyms and swimming pools reopened; pubs, cafes and restaurants were allowed to resume full service outdoors and serve food - without alcohol - indoors until 8pm; the maximum attendance at weddings and funerals was raised to 50 guests; hairdressers and beauty salons reopened; and non-essential home improvements such as decorating or kitchen fitting could restart.
It was also the first time lateral flow testing kits were made available to the public in Scotland so that they could test themselves for Covid at home, even if they had no symptoms.
On May 3, confirmed Covid cases in Scotland fell to their lowest level of the entire year: a daily average of 163 infections.
On May 10, the World Health Organisation designated the Indian strain as a ‘variant of concern’; two days later, Dr Linda de Caestecker, NHS Glasgow’s director of public health, warned that postcodes in the south city were experiencing “clusters” of infection seemingly linked to the fast-spreading new variant.
It came at a point in time when most people under 40 were yet to be vaccinated, providing the virus with an ample reservoir for transmission.
Govanhill and Pollokshields - both areas of the city with large South Asian populations, deprivation, and more crowded housing - emerged as the epicentres of the outbreak.
By May 14, mounting concern about the situation in Glasgow - where case rates in some areas were up to three times higher than the national average - led to an eleventh hour decision to pause the city’s progress into Level Two restrictions.
“It is thought that this variant could be significantly more transmissible than even the Kent [Alpha] variant that was identified before Christmas - and that alone calls for an appropriate degree of caution,” said First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, addressing the Scottish Parliament late on the Friday afternoon.
Moray - which was also experiencing a separate surge in Covid cases, not related to the new variant - was also held back while the rest of mainland Scotland moved into Level Two.
For most of the country, however, May 17 marked a significant step closer to normality: cinemas reopened, albeit with masks and physical distancing; alcohol could be served again to customers inside pubs and restaurants up to a 10.30pm curfew; groups of up to six people from three households could meet together indoors in hospitality venues or homes; and leisure travel to other local authorities was permitted for the first time this year.
READ MORE: The Indian variant is on the rise - and pubic health experts are worried
It was also the date that Scotland ended its blanket hotel quarantine policy for all international arrivals, and adopted England’s traffic light system instead.
Two days later, on May 19, the Indian variant overtook Alpha to become the dominant Covid strain circulating in Scotland.
It was easy to distinguish in surveillance because its S-gene would be picked up during PCR testing, whereas Alpha was characterised by an S-gene ‘dropout.’
It was a genomic marker that would become important again later in the year.
On May 31, the WHO adopted its “simple, easy to say” Greek alphabet naming system for variants of concern - creating Alpha, Delta, Beta and the rest - and on June 5, Glasgow finally moved into Level Two.
The city’s residents had spent longer than any other part of Scotland under the toughest of restrictions: visiting other people homes had been banned since September 2020, and alcohol had not been served inside the city’s pubs and restaurants for nine months.
Scotland-wide, the drive to get people vaccinated continued.
An online booking portal - first launched for 18 to 29-year-olds,amid concerns they were less likely to respond to appointment letters, or even receive them at all if they had moved address - went live for all adults in Scotland on June 28, inviting anyone still unvaccinated to come forward.
The end of June was also dominated by scandal, however, as UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock resigned in disgrace after footage of the married father-of-two kissing aide Gina Coladangelo in his ministerial office – in breach of physical distancing rules - was leaked.
In a statement, the 42-year-old - who subsequently left his wife for Ms Coladangelo - said the “last thing I would want is for my private life to distract attention from the single-minded focus that is leading us out of this crisis”.
Tomorrow: Part Two - From 'Freedom Day' to the rise of the Omicron variant
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