Social distancing will remain until vaccine is developed

Some social distancing measures will remain in place until a coronavirus vaccine has been developed but ministers will seek to restore people’s lives to “as close to normal as possible”, Michael Gove has said.

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster warned that people would have to live with “some degree of constraint” until they can be immunised against the deadly disease – suggesting Britons would have to accept a “new normal”.

A total of 28,446 people have died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Saturday.

The Cabinet minister told the daily Downing Street press conference: “Ultimately, unless and until we have a vaccine then I suspect that we are going to have to live with some degree of constraint because of the nature of the virus.

“But we obviously want to, wherever possible, and consistent with the measures on public health, restore people’s lives to as close to normal as possible.”

He said the government will pursue a “phased approach” to removing lockdown restrictions rather than a sudden return to “the old normal” and that the easing had to be done in a “cautious fashion”.

NHS England’s national medical director Professor Stephen Powis said it was “really difficult” to know how the virus would play out in the months and years ahead.

He said there was “hope” that a solution, either a vaccine or drugs, would be found sooner than might have been hoped 10 or 20 years ago, though it is “impossible to say when that will be”.

“But it’s certainly true to say that we will need to adapt to a new normal until we get to that point.”

Human trials of a vaccine developed by Oxford University began last month, with scientists aiming to have a million doses ready by September if efficacy tests go well.

Mr Gove said Boris Johnson would set out on Thursday how the country can get back to work, get the economy moving, return children to school and travel to work more safely.

“We’re consulting with employers and unions, professionals and public health experts, to establish how we can ensure that we have the safest possible working environments, and the prime minister will be saying more later this week,” he explained.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps warned life would not return to “business as usual” when the prime minister sets out his exit strategy.

Mr Shapps said “many things” could have been different if the UK’s testing capacity was above 100,000 before Covid-19 spread in the country.

In an interview with BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show yesterday, Mr Shapps was asked whether fewer people would have died if testing capacity had been greater sooner.

He replied: “Yes. If we had had 100,000 test capacity before this thing started and the knowledge that we now have retrospectively, I’m sure many things could be different.”

Yesterday it emerged the number of daily tests being carried out had fallen back below 80,000 – a total of 76,496 were carried out in the 24 hours up to 9am on May 3.

Mr Gove has said people will have to live with a degree of constraint.