Lockdown to be extended as deadline is drawing near

DOMINIC Raab has given the clearest signal yet that the Government’s shutdown measures to curb the spread of coronavirus will be extended for several weeks.

Ministers are due to review the strict guidelines on Friday, which marks the end of the third week since they were brought in.

The Foreign Secretary, who has taken over the day-to-day running of No10 while Boris Johnson is in intensive care, indicated that no decision to ease restrictions will be taken until experts are convinced the peak of hospital admissions has passed.

Speaking at the Downing Street coronavirus briefing, Mr Raab said: “The Government’s No1 priority is to get past the peak, and we do that by stopping the spread, which is why those decisions [to ease the lockdown] will have to wait until we are beyond that point.

“The No1 priority right now is to stop Priority... Dominic the spread Raab yesterday and to make sure that we can get past the peak. That is the overriding focus of the Government right now. The other decisions can be considered in the light of the evidence.”

Mr Johnson had promised a review of the shutdown after three weeks when announcing the measures on March 27. Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty, who stood alongside Mr Raab yesterday, said: “To be clear, we do not think we know for certain that the peak will be at the end of this week.

“Until we are confident we are there, that would be too early to start calling the point where we can move to the next phase of the epidemic. The key thing is to get to the point where we are confident we have reached the peak and are beyond the peak.

“That is the point at which we are able to have a serious discussion about all the things we need to do step-by-step to move to the next phase of managing this.”

Dame Angela McLean, the chief scientific adviser to the Ministry of Defence told the briefing that the rate of hospital admissions was “starting to slow.”

But she added: “It really is too soon to see the effects of the big changes we have all made to our lives from March 23 onwards.

“It’s too early to tell yet. We need people to carry on following those instructions so that we can work out, three weeks later, what actually happens in hospitals.”