Vaccine will end social distancing

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.

Mr Gove 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 ten 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. people travelling to Britain from abroad to keep coronavirus infection rates under control.

The Prime Minister has pledged to set out a “comprehensive plan” on how the current lockdown may be eased on Thursday, when the government must legally review the measures.

Mr Shapps cautioned that life would not return to how it was in February, before the social distancing measures were introduced.

He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday: “I don’t think we should expect us to go from this situation that we have at the moment of social distancing back to where we were in February. That’s clearly not going to happen and I don’t think anyone imagines that for one moment.

“The most important thing is that the absolute focus of what the Prime Minister will be announcing later in the week is that what we do do going forward doesn’t undo the brilliant work people have been doing to get that R number below 1 –the all-critical reproduction rate doesn’t come back up because that’s when we’d see a second spike.

“So, no, I’m afraid it is definitely not going to be business as usual but we do want to make sure that people understand where the routemap lies.”

New figures yesterday showed the number of daily tests being carried out for coronavirus in the UK has fallen to below 80,000.

Statistics published by the government indicate that a total of 76,496 were carried out in the 24 hours up to 9am on 3 May.

On Friday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that the government’s target of 100,000 tests a day by the end of April had been achieved, with more than 122,000 tests having been provided on the last day of the month.

Since then, the number has dropped by about 40,000 according to official statistics.

Overall, a total of 1,206,405 coronavirus tests have been carried out in the UK since the beginning of April.

In the government’s daily briefing yesterday, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove said that steps taken to extend testing would help get more people back to work.

He said: “We have now of course extended the criteria for testing beyond key workers to anyone over 65 displaying symptoms, and anyone who has to travel to get to work.

“And this week, we will be piloting new test, track and trace procedures on the Isle of Wight with a view to having them in place more widely later this month.

“All of these steps will help us to get more people back to work and help to support the delivery of our public services.”

On the testing figures, NHS England’s national medical director Professor Stephen Powis said: “Testing capacity has ramped up very quickly and we are now at a very high level of testing, over 100,000 – a little bit of a dip in the weekend, but we anticipate that that testing capacity will continue to increase.”