UK's old university towns hit by Covid-19 'double whammy'

Local economies across country have been adversely affected by loss of students and tourists

• Coronavirus - latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

Usually, St Andrews is thronged with students and its Old Course links fully booked by international golfing tourists.

Around 9,000 students make up one-third of the population, and Scotland's oldest university, which generated 268.6m for the local economy in 2018, is the town's major employer, supporting 4,260 jobs.

Epidemics of infectious diseases behave in different ways but the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed more than 50 million people is regarded as a key example of a pandemic that occurred in multiple waves, with the latter more severe than the first. It has been replicated - albeit more mildly - in subsequent flu pandemics.