Britain's Covid-19 strategy simply adds up to many more jobless people | Larry Elliott

Every country wants to fight the virus with minimal economic damage. Our attempts have created the worst of all worlds

It's the textbook example of being caught between a rock and a hard place. The number of people being treated for Covid-19 in hospital is rising fast and is currently higher than it was when the UK went into full national lockdown on 23 March. Worse is to come.

Simultaneously, the threat of mass unemployment looms ever larger. More workers were made redundant in the three months to August than at any time since the period when the banks almost went bust a decade ago. Worse is to come here, too.

Larry Elliott is the Guardian's economics editor