LONDON — For Britain, it has been a year of agonizing numbers.
Since Prime Minister Boris Johnson plunged the country into lockdown on March 23, 2020, to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the U.K. has seen its highest surge in deaths since World War II and its deepest economic slump in 300 years. On a more positive note, Britain is now rolling out its fastest vaccination campaign on record.
Here are some of the figures from Britain’s pandemic year:
— Days since Britain’s first national lockdown was declared: 365
— National lockdowns in England: 3, covering more than half of the year
— Confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.K.: 4,301,925
— Officially recorded COVID-19 deaths: 126,172, the highest toll in Europe and fifth-highest in the world
— Amount by which U.K. deaths in 2020 exceeded the five-year average: 7.2%
— Fall in U.K. Gross Domestic Product since February 2020: 9%
— Debt as share of GDP: 97.9%, the highest level since the early 1960s
— Growth in number of people unemployed in January from a year earlier: 360,000
— Furloughed employees, the bulk of whose wages were temporarily paid by the government: 11.2 million
— Amount allocated by government to financial support for workers, business and public services: 352 billion pounds ($485 billion)
— First doses of coronavirus vaccine delivered: 27,997,976, reaching 53.2% of U.K. adults
