THE difficulty is in striking the balance. The dichotomy between safeguarding the health of a nation and preserving the economy of a nation. They said a long time ago that it would be more difficult to plan the route out of the Covid-19 crisis than it had been to put down the road blocks on the way into it, and they weren’t joking.

To an extent, they are interdependent, health and economy. All over the world, in normal time, there is generally a direct positive correlation between the two. These days though, they are diametrically opposed: measures taken to protect one are strangling the life out of the other.