TIMELINE: A look back on key events and dates six months on from coronavirus lockdown being imposed

Today marks six months since lockdown measures were imposed across the UK, changing the way we live our lives.

On March 23, both Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon addressed the public with a message – stay at home to save lives.

At that point, the number of cases of Covid-19 and deaths were relatively low, but growing at an alarming rate.

And over the weeks to come, the grim and harsh reality of coronavirus would leave a devastating impact on families and communities across the country.

Stuck in their homes other than heading out for one piece of exercise or a trip for supplies – unless they were shielding – people tuned in to daily government updates to make sense of what was going on.

They were met with a horrifying mounting death toll and stark warnings that worse may be to come.

Fortunately, lockdown measures over the summer brought case numbers down and parts of society opened up again.

Instead of the Zoom calls, home-baking and Joe Wicks workouts that punctuated the early days of lockdown, people were able to visit friends, head out to cafes and return to gyms.

Over the past few months, there have been scandals over lockdown rules being broken involving the Prime Minister’s advisor Dominic Cummings, as well as Scotland’s former Chief Medical Officer Catherine Calderwood and footballers with Aberdeen and Celtic.

And amid the darkness, there have also been moments of hope and inspiration, from the Clap for Carers to Captain Sir Tom Moore raising millions by pacing his garden.

But with the reopening of society and a “new-normal” came a rise in cases, and new measures have been introduced in recent days.

There are now more tools in the arsenal to fight the pandemic, ranging from increased testing and contact tracing to new drug treatments and, hopefully in the not too distant future, a vaccine.

It’s hoped that they can prevent a repeat of the last six months – a period of time like no other.

In our interactive timeline below, look back at the key dates and events across the six months as the pandemic response developed.