Chancellor Rishi Sunak has warned that there are "tough times" to come after a devastating report said two million jobs could be lost to the coronavirus lockdown.
Speaking from Downing Street, Mr Sunak said he was "troubled" by the projection - but said he was confident that the UK would "bounce back" quickly when the crisis is over.
He said: "These are tough times and there are more to come.
"I've always said we can't protect every business, and we can't protect every household, but we came into this with a fundamentally sound economy."
The Chancellor said he expected the damage to be "temporary", and said he believes the economy will "bounce back".
He admitted that intervention to protect jobs had "cost a lot", but would not be drawn on the impact on public spending as the government tackles the deficit after the crisis.
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Mr Sunak said: "The best way out of this is to grow the economy, and keeping it intact at this stage will allow it to bounce back.
"If that happens it means the long term impact on public finances will be reduced."
And the Chancellor stated: "Once we get through this obviously we will have to take stock of public finances and the economy and make the right decisions at that point and I've talked before about doing whatever we need to to right the ship at that point.
"But what I would say is we remain very committed to the agenda that we set out before which was about levelling up and spreading opportunity around this country, and indeed I believe this can still be a critical part of how we get back to normal here."
It comes as ministers grapple with an exit strategy, with Brits now in their fourth month in lockdown, and businesses across the country forced to close to stop the spread of Covid-19.
On Thursday the government is expected to extend the current restrictions for another three weeks.
Mr Sunak said he had honoured a pledge to give the NHS "whatever it needs", and called on the public to continue to stay home and save lives.
Stephen Powis, National Medical Director of NHS England, said that the public has been sticking to advice, and said: "We need to keep it that way, we need to keep the benefits going forward and we can't take our foot off the pedal now."
He said if people follow advice to stay at home: "We will get on top of this virus."
Prof Powis said it is "not clear" how many infections were happening within hospitals - but he said data is being looked at.
"The data is not clear enough yet to be able to calculate that number," he said.
And Prof Powis continued: "We'll continue to look at it and continue to adapt our practices."
It comes as the UK's coronavirus death toll increased by 813 - with the figure not including those who died outside hospitals.
At least 12,157 people have died after contracting the killer bug, but the real number is feared to be far higher.
Earlier today the UK's fiscal watchdog warned the economy could fall off a cliff edge because of the Covid-19 lockdown, with two million jobs lost.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said unemployment could soar to 3.4 million, leaving around one in 10 of the working population without a job.
On top of that, the government could be faced with the biggest deficit since World War Two, with public sector net borrowing reaching £273 billion - or 14% of gross domestic product (GDP).
The OBR has based its figures on the assumption that the lockdown will last for three months, and would then be followed by a partial lifting.
If this happens, it said, the economy will bounce back quickly at the end of the year - but the Chancellor earlier admitted there is "hardship" ahead.
Public sector net debt is expected to rise sharply, surpassing 100% of GDP at one stage during the year, but ending 2020 at 95%, compared with previous estimates of 77%.
The OBR said: "...the longer the period of economic disruption lasts, the more likely it is that the economy's future potential output will be 'scarred' (thanks to business failures, cancelled investments and the unemployed becoming disconnected from the labour market)."
Responding to the OBR figures, Chancellor Rishi Sunak told BBC News: "Well the OBR's independent of Government and as they've said this is just one potential scenario, but I think three points.
"I think firstly, look, it's clear this will have a very significant impact on our economy and (like) common with economies around the world and it's important that we're honest about that.
"People should know that there's hardship ahead. We won't be able to protect every job or every business as I've said.
"The second point, it's clear that the report makes clear that the actions we've taken, unprecedented actions will help to mitigate the impact of the virus on our economy and if we hadn't done these things, it would mean that things were a lot worse, for example the impact on unemployment.
"And the last point to make, is it's clear we must defeat this virus as quickly as possible. That's not a choice between health and economics, that defies common sense. What we need is just to follow the rules and I'm grateful to everyone for doing that over the Easter weekend."
