The 10 things we wanted to know about COVID in 2020

The world had one thing on its mind above all else in 2020: coronavirus.

And that has been reflected in the year’s most popular online searches.

According to Yahoo Search data, coronavirus was unsurprisingly the top trend among UK web users in 2020.

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However, while back in January and February, Britons were simply searching online to find out what coronavirus was, throughout the rest of the year they wanted to know the specifics surrounding it.

This meant online searches for a range of COVID-related topics, as the public tried to find out what the pandemic meant for their daily lives.

The top 10 COVID-19 search terms include face masks, travel rules, vaccine and lockdown.

Some of the searches just outside the top 10 were key workers, as web users wanted to discover who was exempt from much of the restrictions, as well as clap for carers - the weekly national show of appreciation for health workers on Thursday evenings at the beginning of the first lockdown.

The government’s Eat Out To Help Out scheme, which tried to give a boost to the hospitality industry but was later accused of exacerbating the spread of the virus, was also one of the top 20 searches, along with school closures, the 2m social distancing rule and volunteering.

Here is the list of the top 10 online searches this year relating to coronavirus:

1 Lockdown

England’s first national lockdown was announced by prime minister Boris Johnson on 23 March, as he told the country to “stay at home”.

The lockdown was eased gradually until pubs and restaurants were allowed to reopen on 4 July.

But online searches for lockdown would spike again later in the year, when England went into a second lockdown from 5 November to 2 December.

2 Grocery delivery

One of Britons’ major concerns, particularly during the first lockdown, was getting food.

The major supermarkets were forced to introduce new rules to combat panic buying, as the nation went online to fight for booking slots.

Ahead of the second lockdown, delivery slots started booking out faster than usual once more.

3 Face masks

The fierce debate around face masks was one of the features of the pandemic, and it was one of the most popular online searches because the public was desperate to know when and how to wear them.

After initial government advice that face masks did little to combat the spread of coronavirus, the UK eventually followed the lead of other countries and made them mandatory in several spaces.

In August, the government performed a U-turn to announce that masks should be worn by secondary school pupils and staff.

Watch: Prime minister defends schools face masks U-turn

4 Zoom

With everyone stuck at home, Britons needed new ways to communicate with their loved ones and their work colleagues.

Video calling firm Zoom, which Yahoo Finance named as its Company of the Year, stepped into the breach, allowing people to keep in touch with the outside world from their own homes.

Read more: Zoom to lift 40-minute limit for set periods during Christmas and New Year

Its growth in popularity had a downside, however, as almost three-quarters of Britons have reported suffering from “Zoom anxiety” in the past year.

5 Travel rules

When the coronavirus pandemic first took hold, there was a scramble among Britons on holiday to return home, as the nation tried to follow the government’s quickly changing travel advice.

In June, the government introduced a 14-day quarantine rule for people arriving in the UK, although a new scheme to cut this period began in December.

6 Vaccine

There was much more positive news surrounding coronavirus towards the end of the year, when a number of pharmaceutical companies announced their COVID-19 vaccines were effective against the disease.

In December, 90-year-old Margaret Keenan, originally from Enniskillen in Northern Ireland, became the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 jab outside a clinical trial, when she was administered it at University Hospital in Coventry, as the UK began its vaccine rollout.

Watch: Hospital staff applaud first recipient of COVID vaccine

7 Furlough scheme

The government’s furlough scheme figured highly in Yahoo Search data as millions of British workers tried to find out if they were eligible for compensation for lost income during the pandemic.

Announced on 20 March by chancellor Rishi Sunak, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme gave grants to employers to provide workers with 80% of their pay, up to a monthly total of £2,500.

The scheme was extended until the end of March 2021 and then until the end of April.

8 Self-isolation

Britons had to keep pace with the constantly evolving rules over self-isolation during the pandemic, and police were given powers to check on those who should have been doing so.

The quarantine period for those who had been in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 was reduced from 14 days to 10 days in December.

A study published in September had revealed that only 11% of people had been self-isolating for the full 14 days after being instructed to do so by NHS Test and Trace.

9 Wuhan outbreak

Wuhan featured highly in Yahoo Search data for British web users earlier in the year, as scientists believe the city in China’s Hubei province was ground zero for coronavirus.

It is believed the virus first spread from animals to humans at a so-called “wet market” in the city, but some researchers think it may have merely been amplified there.

Read more: Chinese city of Wuhan one year on from coronavirus outbreak

In June, almost 10 million people in Wuhan were tested for COVID-19 in the space of 19 days, with only 300 positive cases. Thousands of people crammed into a huge pool party in the city in the summer.

In August, a group of World Health Organization scientists said coronavirus did come from bats, but the WHO is sending a new team to Wuhan in January to investigate the origins of COVID-19.

10 Hand sanitiser

Hand sanitiser became an essential piece of kit for people after the emergence of coronavirus, with thousands of Britons panic buying it in bulk earlier in the year, forcing supermarkets to introduce rationing.

The product became big business, and one couple who set up a hand sanitiser firm when coronavirus hit were reportedly making millions of pounds, while donating large quantities to NHS charities.

Watch: Some hand sanitisers ‘don’t have enough alcohol to kill COVID’