We’re not out of woods, say ministers ahead of Boris plan
BRITAIN is not out of the woods with the coronavirus and will have to live with it for some time, say ministers.
The message from Environment Secretary George Eustice at the latest Downing Street briefing came as Wales announced some changes to its own lockdown measures.
People will be allowed to exercise more than once a day – as long as it’s local – and garden centres can reopen if provision is made for social distancing.
Mr Eustice said: “We will have to wait for what the prime minister has to say but I think what I can say is this - he’s going to set out effectively a roadmap of how we can evolve the current restrictions.
“We have this complete lockdown at the moment to something where certain activities may become possible in the short term, in the near term and other things might take much longer.
“We have to be realistic that there isn’t going to be any dramatic overnight change, we will be very very cautious as we loosen the restrictions we have, as the data that we’re outlining on a daily basis shows we are not out of the woods.
“There are still major challenges, we will be living with this virus for some time to come and it’s therefore important to avoid that second peak that could overwhelm our NHS.”
He added that all devolved administrations attended Cobra meetings and while each might take slightly different approaches, they were working together to try to have a broadly similar UK approach. He said the government would give up to £16m to provide food for those who are struggling as a result of coronavirus. The programme would provide millions of meals over the next 12 weeks and be delivered through charities including FareShare and WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme).
At least 5,000 frontline charities across England will benefit from the cash which comes from the £750m pot announced for charities by Chancellor Rishi Sunak last month
The number of daily coronavirus tests rose by more than 10,000 on Thursday but still fell below Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s 100,000 target for a sixth day in a row. A total of 97,029 tests were conducted in the 24 hours to 9am yesterday, up from 86,583 the day before.