Easing Covid-19 lockdown has to happen, says Raab
FOREIGN Secretary Dominic Raab has said it is a “sensitive moment” as England eases its own lockdown measures – but the country has to transition.
From today, groups of up to six people will be able to meet outside in England as long as they observe social distancing as part of efforts to fight coronavirus.
Mr Raab’s comments came amid plummeting poll ratings for the UK Government and after a growing number of expert advisers on the coronavirus crisis have expressed concern about the plans to ease lockdown restrictions in England.
On a weekend which saw chaotic scenes on some of England’s beaches, as people flocked to beauty spots in the sweltering heat, Professor Peter Horby, of the University of Oxford, joined scientists Sir Jeremy Farrar and Professor John Edmunds, all members of the Scientific
Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), to warn that ministers are taking risks.
At a time when England’s lockdown measures are relaxed across a range of areas, Wales’ First Minister Mark Drakeford has taken a far more cautious approach to easing restrictions.
Robert West, a participant in the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPIB) which advises Sage, emphasised on the weekend that some 8,000 infections, and 400 deaths, a day are still occurring in the UK.
Speaking in a personal capacity, he said: “Put all this together and you have a huge risk, and it’s not just me saying that, that there will be an increase in infection rates.”
Mr Raab yesterday said: “This is a sensitive moment. We can’t just stay in lockdown forever. We have got to transition.”
Asked whether the lockdown will be tightened again if infection rates increase, Mr Raab told Sky News’ Ridge on Sunday: “We will target, if there is any uptick, and it could be in a locality, it could be in a particular setting, we will target very carefully measures that would apply to it so that we can take these steps but also keep control of the virus.”
Referring to a Government adviser, Mr Raab said: “As Jonathan Van-Tam ... has said, with a precarious moment we can ease up, we can protect life, but also livelihoods, get life back to something resembling normal, but we must monitor it very carefully,
“If there is any up-tick in the number of cases, if we stop making the progress I described, we will have to take further measures again and target the virus wherever it may appear.”
Meanwhile, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Tory MP Tom Tugendhat said he understands the public’s frustrations over the Dominic Cummings situation.
Mr Cummings, the PM’s key adviser, travelled from London to Durham with his wife and child during lockdown.
Asked about Mr Cummings, Mr Tugendhat said: “Of course I’m side-stepping it, the reason I’m sidestepping it is because I’m not in government. I’m not going to answer for the Government, I’m not going to defend the Government in that way.
“The Prime Minister has made his decision. You know, you can see the effect of it, you don’t need me to tell you, you can see how people have reacted to it and I’ve written to the people I’m privileged enough to represent to give them my views.”
Asked what he told his constituents, Mr Tugendhat said: “I said I can understand the frustration but it is fundamentally up to the Prime Minister and it is going to be up to all of us to express our views.”
Mr Raab reiterated on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show the easing of the lockown was needed.
He said: “The reason we can take the steps is that we have met our five tests. We have made progress.
“Because we have made that progress, steadily, slowly, surely, week in, week out, we can very gradually, very carefully, take the steps that we are taking.”
The Observer reported a letter sent by 26 senior UK academics and health administrators to Downing Street complained about the impact of the key adviser’s actions in driving from London to Durham with his wife and child during the lockdown.
The group also warned about a failure to enact an effective test, trace and isolate system to pinpoint and then quarantine newly infected people.
As a result, they are now “very concerned for the safety and wellbeing of the general public” as the lockdown measures are relaxed, the newspaper reported.
A poll for the newspaper by Opinium found support for the Conservatives had fallen to leave them just four points ahead of Labour, and the paper said the Tory lead has fallen by eight points in the past week alone.
The poll also found 81% of voters thought Mr Cummings broke the lockdown rules.