Today, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, has decreed a general lockdown: "I must give a very simple instruction to the British people: you must stay at home. [...] There are simply no easy options."

The declaration of the Minister clarifies that they will have the following exceptions: buying food, seeking medical help, caring for vulnerable populations, going to work (for those cases where it cannot be done from home) and a form of exercise, either alone or accompanied by members of the household.

At the time of this decision, the United Kingdom was already the tenth country with the highest number of diagnosed infections in the world (6,726) and the sixth with the highest number of deaths from COVID-19 (335).

In an already politically and economically complex context due to Brexit, the crisis of the epidemic will continue to increase uncertainty and make economic negotiations with the European Union more difficult.

The United Kingdom officially left the European Union on January 31st this year, still having a year's extension to complete the trade negotiations, a period that according to all analysts was already too short even without the disruption of the pandemic.

In addition to the negotiations with the European Union, which concerned all economic sectors, negotiations with other countries such as the United States and Australia were still pending.

Having prioritized the productivity of the population over its safety will make the epidemiological curve take longer to go down, which in turn will continue to delay negotiations and the reactivation of the economy.

For now, God save the Queen and the English health system.