Lockdown easing ‘sensitive’ – Raab
FOREIGN Secretary Dominic Raab has said it is a “sensitive moment” as Britain eases 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 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 uptick 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.”
And Mr Raab explained on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show why he felt 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 tomorrow.”
More than two million clinically extremely vulnerable people who have been shielding since March will finally be allowed to spend time with other people outdoors.
But medical authorities have stressed the new freedoms, which come into effect officially after a hot weekend which has enticed people to beaches and beauty spots, must be treated with caution.
Phil Anderson, head of policy at the MS Society, said people would want to hear the scientific evidence behind the decision, which he described as having “come out of the blue”.
At the same time, the Observer reported a letter sent by 26 senior UK academics and health administrators to Downing Street complained about the impact of key adviser Dominc Cummings’ 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 “concerned for the safety and wellbeing of the general public” as the lockdown measures are relaxed, the newspaper reported.