Government ‘does not expect’ UK social distancing measures to be eased
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab has confirmed the government “does not expect” to lift its social distancing measures at this week’s review.
Boris Johnson put the UK into effective lockdown last month and said it would be reviewed on a three-weekly basis.
Speaking at today’s daily press briefing, Raab said: “This week Sage (the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) will review the effectiveness of the social distancing measures we have taken.
“We do not expect to make any changes of the measures at that point and we won’t until we’re confident…that any such changes can be safely made.
“In the meantime, the government will continue to redouble all our efforts.
“If we keep up this incredible team effort, we will beat the virus and come through this national test. Our plan is working, please stick with it and we’ll get through this crisis together.”
The UK’s Covid-19 death toll surpassed 11,000 today as a further 717 people died in hospital from the virus.
Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said at the briefing that the number of hospital admissions was “beginning to flatten off” and that the UK was “tracking behind Italy” on the number of coronavirus deaths.
Vallance indicated that the peak of the outbreak should hit within the next week.
“This week we will see a further increase [of deaths], thereafter we should expect to see a plateau as social distancing measures benign to come through,” he said.
Vallance added that it would be a waste of the nation’s efforts if social distancing measures were lifted too son.
“It would be a complete waste of what everyone has had to do until now, and I absolutely understand the difficulties of some of the decisions made, but it would be a waste to rapidly reverse that and lead to a re-emergence of this,” he said.