At least one in four UK businesses have temporarily closed or stopped trading due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to an Office for National Statistics (ONS) survey.
Of the three quarters of businesses still trading, around one in five workers (21 per cent) had been furloughed, and just under one in 20 (4.5 per cent) were off sick or in self-isolation because of the coronavirus.
Almost two in five (38 per cent) businesses still trading said that their turnover was substantially lower than usual, while 41 per cent said they were reducing staff levels in the short term.
More than a third of staff at businesses still trading were working from their usual place of work, and 47 per cent were working from home.