It’s been one year since Boris Johnson promised to ‘turn the tide’ on coronavirus in just three months

It’s been one year since Boris Johnson claimed he could “turn the tide” on coronavirus within three months.

Unfortunately, by this target, we are running nine months behind schedule... and counting.

Since his comments at a Downing Street press conference on 19 March 2020 , we still find ourselves in a national lockdown - a policy that he did not adopt until four days after that statement - while the UK death toll stands at more than 126,000. That’s without looking at the pending economic doom and the rest of the societal destruction unleashed by the virus.

The Prime Minister told a press conference: “I do think, looking at it all, that we can turn the tide within the next 12 weeks and I am absolutely confident that we can send coronavirus packing in this country.”

Well, Miss Rona’s stuff is still all over our nation’s floor and it won’t be stuffed into the suitcase, zipped up and put away from our lives until 21 June, at the very earliest. This is according to the roadmap set out by the government, which is subject to change as they are being guided by “data not dates”.

We finally went into lockdown on 23 March, and have been under social distancing restrictions in some shape or form since then, with England now in a third national shutdown. Hopefully, third time’s a charm - or else Johnson really will be lagging behind his initial target.

The government has faced criticism both domestically and internationally regarding its pandemic strategy, with poor communications, controversial contracts and the UK’s fatality rate among the issues which have prompted backlash.

However, ministers have received praise for the country’s vaccine rollout, something which Johnson hopes is the key to finally sending coronavirus “packing” once and for all.