UK extends coronavirus lockdown for at least three more weeks
The UK will remain in coronavirus lockdown for at least the next three weeks, after today’s meeting of the government’s top scientific body.
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab said at today’s press briefing that “the advice from Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) is that relaxing any of the [social distancing] measures in place would risk damage to public health and our economy”.
It comes after the UK recorded another 861 coronavirus deaths today, bringing the total to 13,839.
There have now been over 100,000 confirmed infections.
“The very clear advice we received is any change to our social distancing measures now would risk a significant increase in the spread of the virus,” Raab said.
“That would threaten a second peak of the virus and substantially increase the number of deaths. It would undo the progress we’ve made to this date and as a result require an even longer period of the more restrictive social distancing measures.”
Raab said that there are five tests that must be passed for the government to ease social distancing restrictions.
He said the NHS must be protected and be able to provide “sufficient critical care”; there needs to be a sustained and consistent fall in coronavirus deaths; there must be “reliable data” from Sage showing the rate of infection decreasing to “manageable levels”; there must be enough protective equipment and testing capacity to meet future demand; and there must be confidence that adjustments to the coronavirus lockdown would not cause a second peak of infections.
“When we are confident on these 5 points…we will look to adjust the measures to make the effective as possible in protection public health while allowing some economic and social activities to resume,” Raab said.
“It could involve relaxing measures in some areas while strengthening measures in other areas.”
The government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said the rate of infection was beginning to flatten.
“It’s looking in a good place, it’s beginning to come down and stabilise in some places and it’s important all the measures we’re taking stay in place in order to maintain this level of control and see the epidemic decrease,” he said.
Vallance added that “the way out of this” was through “vaccines and therapeutics”.
The decision to extend the lockdown was supported by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
”The priority now must be to ensure we see a ramp up in testing, that staff get the protective personal equipment they desperately need and more is done to protect our care homes from the virus,” he said.
“We also need clarity about what plans are being put in place to lift the lockdown when the time is right.”