Johnson urged to reveal UK lockdown exit strategy

LONDON (Reuters) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned to his Downing Street residence on Sunday after recovering from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), ready to take the helm again with pressure growing for the government to explain how it will ease a month-old lockdown to combat the disease.

Johnson, 55, spent three nights in intensive care with the illness. A spokesperson confirmed he was back at 10 Downing Street on Sunday evening after two weeks of recovering at Chequers, his country residence.

The prime minister resumed full-time work yesterday and was “raring to go,” his stand-in Dominic Raab said.

On his desk was a letter from opposition Labor Party leader Keir Starmer urging him to set out when and how an economic and social lockdown to slow the spread of coronavirus might be eased, one of many demanding more information.

Raab, the foreign secretary, said speculation about this risked diluting the message that people should stay at home.

“We are at a delicate and dangerous stage and we need to make sure that the next steps are sure-footed,” he told Sky News.

The official number of deaths related to COVID-19 in hospitals across the United Kingdom rose to 20,732, up by 413 in 24 hours, while confirmed cases stood at 152,840, up by 4,463.

In his open letter to Johnson, Starmer said the government was falling behind the rest of the world by refusing to say more.

“Simply acting as if this discussion is not happening is not credible,” he wrote.

He said the government had been too slow to impose the lockdown, to expand testing and to get personal protective equipment to hospital and care home staff.

A barrage of dire economic news has added to pressure on the government.