Covid quiz: listen-alongs and lockdown parties – how well do you recall the pandemic?

How long after Rishi Sunak’s August eat out to help out scheme did the second national lockdown in England come into force? Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/PA

It is four years since the first UK national Covid lockdown. For the many people who lost loved ones or those whose lives were indelibly changed by contracting Covid it was a life-defining event. And everybody in the UK lived through pandemic times that will always mark a distinct chapter in their lives.

But events from four years ago can sometimes seem both incredibly close and at the same time like a whole other world. Take our quiz to see how much you remember from something so recent that dominated everybody’s lives, and yet can already feel like a distant past.

1. 

   When was Boris Johnson admitted to hospital with Covid?

   1. April 2020

   2. September 2020

   3. January 2021

2. What was the value and growth rate health authorities were worried about, and which formed part of the UK government's Covid updates?

   1. N rate

   2. P rate

   3. R rate

3. Which food item became the subject of national debate as politicians struggled to define whether it constituted a "substantial meal" in a pub once they had reopened?

   1. Packet of peanuts

   2. Cheese toastie

   3. Scotch egg

4. 

   In December 2020 the NHS began rolling out a Covid vaccine. Ninety-year-old Margaret Keenan received the first dose. Which vaccine was approved first for use in the UK?

   1. Pfizer/BioNTech

   2. Moderna

   3. Oxford/AstraZeneca

5. Which English city was put into the first local lockdown and had restrictions in place for some considerable time after they were being lifted elsewhere?

   1. Newcastle

   2. Wolverhampton

   3. Leicester

6. 

   With everything shut, people began making their own entertainment, including listening to an album all at the same time while the original artist chatted about it on social media. What was the most famous of these type of events called?

   1. #LiamsLockdownListenalong

   2. #TimsTwitterListeningParty

   3. #RonAndRussellsReplaytime

7. The partygate scandal began to emerge when a video emerged of who joking about lockdown parties during a mock television briefing?

   1. Jennifer Arcuri

   2. Allegra Stratton

   3. Charlotte Owen

8. In a different incident, a photo emerged, which police took no action over, of what appeared to be a party featuring which 2021 candidate for London mayor?

   1. Shaun Bailey

   2. Laurence Fox

   3. Zac Goldsmith

9. What did Scotland call the regional way it divided up protections?

   1. Tiers 1-3

   2. Alert 1-3

   3. Levels 1-3

10. 

    Wembley was used as a vaccine centre, and football restarted without crowds during the pandemic. Who won the delayed 2019-20 FA Cup on 1 August 2020 at a deserted Wembley Stadium with an official attendance of zero?

    1. Arsenal

    2. Chelsea

    3. Manchester City

11. What was the name of the temporary field hospitals set up in England in case NHS hospitals were overwhelmed?

    1. Cavell hospitals

    2. Nightingale hospitals

    3. Seacole hospitals

12. The UK government introduced 'eat out to help out' in August 2020, offering a 50% discount on food and non-alcoholic drinks of up to £10 per diner. How many days a week did the scheme operate?

    1. Three

    2. Four

    3. Five

13. How long after Rishi Sunak's August eat out to help out scheme did the second national lockdown in England come into force?

    1. September 2020

    2. November 2020

    3. December 2021

14. 

    Matt Hancock was forced to resign as health secretary in 2021. Why?

    1. He drove to Barnard Castle to get his eyes tested

    2. It emerged he had written off £4.9bn of Covid loan fraud

    3. CCTV footage was leaked of him conducting an affair

Solutions

1:A - On Sunday 5 April the government announced that Johnson was taken to an unnamed London hospital after suffering 10 days of symptoms including a high fever, 2:C - An R value between 1.0 and 1.2, for example, meant that, on average, every 10 people infected would infect between 10 and 12 other people. The aim of restrictions was to limit contact and bring the R rate down, 3:C - Ministers Michael Gove and George Eustice disagreed in public during a series of interviews in December 2020 about whether a scotch egg was a substantial meal. Eustice said it was, Gove initially said he saw them as more of a starter. It was crucial, because at the time pubs in England could only serve alcohol alongside a "substantial meal", 4:A - The vaccine was authorised for emergency use by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) on 2 December 2020, 5:C - Leicester was the first local lockdown in England, coming into force 4 July 2020. By September 2020, 20% of the population of the UK were living in local lockdowns, 6:B - The lovely Tim Burgess of the Charlatans organised them, with some of the most popular featuring Paul McCartney, Iron Maiden, Liam Gallagher, Blur, Pulp and the Cure, 7:B - The footage, obtained by ITV, was shot on 22 December 2020. The Friday before was 18 December, the date on which multiple sources said at the time there was a staff party inside Downing Street, which would have contravened strict Covid regulations in place, 8:A - The Metropolitan police took no action over an apparent Christmas party at Conservative headquarters in London during lockdown in 2020 attended by Shaun Bailey, then the party’s candidate for London mayor. The force said that despite a much-published photograph showing Bailey amid a crowd of seeming revellers, some holding drinks and standing next to a buffet, there was not enough evidence to “disprove the version of events provided by attendees”, 9:C - Scotland's regional protection levels commenced with most local authorities in levels 1-3 on 2 November 2020. In England they were called tiers, Wales had alert levels, 10:A - Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-1 with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scoring both goals for the winners, 11:B - At the time the then Prince Charles said they sent a “message of hope”. By January 2021 a handful of people had been treated for Covid, Bristol and Harrogate had provided an overflow service for other patients and services, but in Birmingham and Sunderland they had treated no one at all, 12:A - The scheme was open every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday between 3 and 31 August 2020, and people were invited to use it as many times as they liked, 13:B - On 31 October, in order, he said, to prevent a “medical and moral disaster” for the NHS, Boris Johnson announced a second national lockdown for England that went into force on 5 November 2020, 14:C - At the time he 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". Hancock later appeared on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   Thank you for taking the quiz

• This article was amended on 24 March 2024 to refer to England in question 11.