This is an unimaginable economic shock under all normal circumstances, although the epidemic and shutdown do not deny it.
The government's plan is to provide a roadmap out of the fortnightly.
The chancellor will then announce plans for an overall economic recovery in his budget in early March.
The first announcement will try to balance the competition between viruses and vaccines with deep economic pressures.
The budget then needs to balance the need for financial support in the ongoing form with record public spending.
In my interview with him this morning, he reiterated that the budget would be a moment for him to be "open and honest" with the British people about "the sustainable public financial needs of the future" and "what it means".
The budget will be a “delivery” budget next year with plenty of renewable economic support. But it will also map out the path to sustainability involved in some medium-term tax increases.
The chancellor will preside over the G7 finance minister in a video call with new Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in the United States today.
At the top of the agenda are digital taxes and green finance. Both seem to provide an internal source of tax revenue, not just in the UK. Corporate tax increases and freezing on the income tax margin provide less political pain for the yield of many billions of dollars of funds.
The chancellor also survived to make a fundamental comparison of running an economy with the biggest economic impact during the epidemic-stricken year 2020.
He pointed out some differences in accounting in health and education statistics
But some of that effect has been reversed. In fact, the UK has also chosen to measure the contribution of the Test and Trace project, for example, in a unique way in the latest figures.
The broader picture is of an economy that was at the bottom of international comparisons.
The general picture is that Covid had the most cases and the worst economic losses in the countries that suffered the most.
What really matters is what is happening right now. Vaccines are an understandable source of the Chancellor's "cautious optimism" of 2021.
The economy grew in December, but it is certainly re-contracting in renewed national lockdowns. But if the vaccines continue to lose the virus and its variants, the bounce back after the spring can be quite impressive.
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