PRESS journalist Simon Walton recalls the night, one year ago today, that the UK Covid-19 outbreak started in York

I WASN’T expecting a global pandemic.

That said, during the final days January last year, everyone was anticipating the first case of coronavirus to strike somewhere in the UK.

But I for one imagined it would be somewhere else. It wouldn’t happen in York, would it?

This was still the thought running through my head at 10pm on Wednesday, January 29, 2020, as I stood - alone and chilly - outside the Staycity hotel in York. I was fairly sure I was wasting my time.

A couple of hours earlier I had been sitting at work, finishing things before heading home. Thursday’s paper was on the presses and I was the last person in the office. Then I noticed an email.

It was from the mother of a woman who had that evening driven past the Staycity and had seen something alarming – a couple of people being led from the building by paramedics in hazmat suits.

I tracked down the woman’s daughter, who told me what she’d seen, and admitted it had been a bit “scary”.

A quick call to the hotel didn’t furnish any more information - the staff member I spoke to didn’t know much - so I thought I had better have a look.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t keen. It was late, cold and I was tired. But I had visions of discovering a police cordon, countless blue lights and dozens of emergency workers in hazmat suits surrounding the building.

Fifteen minutes later I arrived at the scene - to discover absolutely nothing. There were no blue lights. There wasn’t an inch of police tape.

The street was deserted. The hotel foyer was empty, but for the receptionist I had already spoken to. I hung around a while, hoping someone might show up, took a few pictures and left.

I still suspected the whole thing to be a false alarm.

Forty-eight hours later, after some frantic inquiries by staff at The Press, it became apparent I had been loitering at the scene of the biggest, most heartbreaking story of my lifetime.

York was ‘ground-zero’ and the virus had arrived in the UK.

I had planned to visit family that weekend. Their reaction, after I told them about Wednesday night, was: “Perhaps give it a week.”

This is how, unwittingly, I became one of the first people in the UK to self-isolate.