Bolton town hall square, and inset, Manchester Airport
A YEAR ago today - March 3 2020 - Bolton's department for public health received a phone call it was most likely expecting and dreading in equal measure.
The call was confirming that a young man from Bolton had tested positive for a new disease - the coronavirus - which had spread first from China and then to Europe with the first major outbreak in Italy.
Two days earlier, on March 1, a Bury resident, who had just returned from the country, had tested positive for Covid-19 and a makeshift tracing operation had been set in motion.