It's only a matter of weeks before some small retailers go bust. Many hotels are all but empty. The companies that supply them with beer, milk and eggs are losing orders. The roads are eerily free of tourists' cars and delivery vans. Some stores offer discounts on goods like parkas and fleeces.
Farmers are canceling equipment orders, and employees in the tourism business are being laid off.
Now we have one, on a three-day week. In such small places, said Michael Taylor, an economist at Merrill Lynch in London, the effects are draconian. And that gloomy assessment rattles along a chain of businesses. Even though the nearest case is 10 miles from the Langstrath Country Inn, the Lake District has been hard hit. Of 251 cases reported across Britain by Thursday, about 70 were in Cumbria, which includes this scenic area.