LONDON (AP) — Britain is pausing to remember thousands of lives lost to the coronavirus, two years to the day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson plunged the country into lockdown with the command: “You must stay at home.”
Offices, schools, restaurants, shops and playgrounds were shut under a strict lockdown imposed on March 23, 2020.
It lasted for about three months.
Members of bereaved families tied yellow ribbons to Westminster Bridge beside Parliament on Wednesday, and a minute’s silence was held at noon.
The prime minister said “those lost to COVID will never be out of our hearts and minds, and today we reflect as a nation.”
A public inquiry into his government’s handling of the pandemic is due to begin within weeks.
