Civic buildings in Aberystwyth will be lit up in yellow night tomorrow evening to mark the one year anniversary of lockdown.

On 23 March 2020, the UK entered its first lockdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

To mark the occasion, a day of reflection is being held and the castle, Alun R Edwards Building (town hall library) and the bandstand will be bathed in yellow light as we pause to remember those who have passed away over the last 12 months.

To show support for those who are grieving, people across the UK are invited to take part in the national minute’s silence at 12pm on Tuesday, 23 March.

Ceredigion County Council has been reflecting on the last year and the struggles we have all faced.

In a statement, the council said: “From the outset, our priority was to protect the county’s population, minimise who would contract the coronavirus and the number of deaths from it.

“At the beginning, Public Health Wales projections indicated a reasonable worst case scenario of 600 deaths in the county by June 2020 and this was not acceptable to us.

“Ceredigion County Council put in place a strategy that enabled the workforce to work as one team to actively try to suppress the virus. The staff were willing to undertake whatever duties were asked of them and with the co-operation of the citizens of Ceredigion, the worst case scenarios were never realised.

“It is important to acknowledge the 72,000 residents of Ceredigion who have adhered heroically to the challenges set by the restrictions and lockdown. We thank the residents of the county for following guidance so rigidly and diligently, ensuring that the number who have been infected by the coronavirus has been kept relatively low.”

The council also praised frontline workers, many of whom were redeployed in response to the crisis.

The council added: “We have continued to provide a lot of our essential frontline services running for the people of our county.

“Many of these services have been supported by staff from other services who volunteered to be re-deployed. Their willingness to assist has been essential in maintaining these services, including waste management, supporting our residential care homes and the Childcare Hubs.

“The first steps were to get Ceredigion down to its core population, which meant working with tourism sector and the Universities to close their facilities in a controlled and safe manner. We are grateful to those who worked with us to close temporarily, meaning the population was reduced by 35,000.

“Prior to the first official lockdown, we closed the doors to our care homes. We worked closely with the private care homes to ensure the safety of our most vulnerable people and have continued to do so.

“Our ICT team established video conferencing facilities in the homes to enable the residents to speak with their loved ones on a regular basis.

“An initial in-house contact tracing system was developed by the council at the beginning of April, which was then integrated with the national system.

“The Contact Tracing Team continues to perform to a high standard – making that critical first contact with the majority of those who have had a positive test result within 24 hours.

“Schools have been closed for around eight months of the last year and teachers have adapted to support children and young people to learn remotely. Childcare for children of frontline service workers was provided across the county.

“A PPE hub was set up to coordinate the equipment for services within the county. A number of our staff across all secondary schools in Ceredigion produced face-shields. This ensured that this critical element of the coronavirus response was undertaken to keep frontline workers and service users safe.

“Grants have been available by Welsh Government with £36.6 million allocated and distributed by the Council staff to Ceredigion businesses who are vital to the economy of the county. Businesses have also been supported and advised by the Public Protection Team in order to ensure compliance with regulations.

“Those medically vulnerable and shielding were contacted by council staff to ensure they were safe and that they received food and medication.

“900 locally sourced weekly food boxes were provided to our most vulnerable citizens during the first lockdown. Support was provided to keep the homeless from the streets and in temporary accommodation.

“We wanted to create safe, inviting towns for people to come shopping and to enjoy. With the slow easing of the lockdown in the county and with social distancing requirements still being important, it was necessary to make adjustments for public health reasons. Safe zones were implemented in Aberaeron, Aberystwyth, Cardigan and New Quay in July.”

Moving forward, the council has praised the rollout of the vaccine in Ceredigion, conducted by Hywel Dda Health Board and says: “Our focus now is to manage the adjustment phase and the long term resilience of Ceredigion in conjunction with all of our partners, whilst continuing to be vigilant in order to limit any future outbreaks.

“Work is ongoing to plan for the recovery phase, with the county’s economy a priority. We all hope that the rollout of the vaccine, the decrease in the number of cases and as we approach the summer that things will get back to something closer to ‘normality’.

“Again, we extend our thanks to the people of Ceredigion. This has and continues to be a team effort, and the Coronavirus has shown what a team we have in Ceredigion.”