The United Kingdom Office for National Statistics stated that the economy has shrank by 20.4% in April back to mid-2002 levels due to widespread lockdowns to combat the Covid-19 coronavirus. According to local statistical reports, combined with the 5.8% economic decline in March, the United Kingdom's economy is about 25% than it was in February 2020. While almost all areas of the economy were damaged by the pandemic, in particular, the food and beverage, education, and automobile industries are some of the hardest hit.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) predicts that with much of the economy on hold in June and possible months to come, the United Kingdom is heading for one of its deepest economic recessions ever, and may be the hardest-hit developed economy this year. Lockdown restrictions are being eased with caution, which may help strengthen the economy. For example, as of Monday, June 15th, 2020, non-essential stores such as department stores may reopen if they are able to abide by all physical and social distancing requirements.

As of now, over 293,000 cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus have been confirmed in the United Kingdom while at least 41,481 people have succumbed to Covid-19-related causes.

Note: All statistics and figures in this article were retrieved from the UK's Department of Health and Social Care (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health-and-social-care), the World Health Organization (https://covid19.who.int/), and the Johns Hopkins University (https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html). All numbers are up to date as of June 12th, 2020, at 23:54 local Vancouver, BC, Canada time.  The second photo used in this article is my personal photo while the first and third images were from the public domain, and can be used for commercial purposes without attribution or other citation.