UK ‘NOT BACK TO NORMAL FOR YEAR’

Revealed: Official advice to ministers

NORMAL life will stay on hold until a virus vaccine becomes available in about 18 months, officials said last night.

Advice to work from home and stay in for seven days if you have symptoms will probably still be in place next year.

Ministers want to lift the most restrictive parts of the lockdown, including school and shop closures, within weeks. But senior Government sources say the only true ‘exit strategy’ is a vaccine or a cure. Until then, the UK will have to adjust to a ‘new normal’.

Dominic Raab, standing in for the Prime Minister while he is

sick, has said it is ‘ too early’ to lift the full lockdown, which will be formally extended next Thursday for several weeks. Scientists expect the restrictions to be phased out gradually. They say some will stay in place until there is a vaccine – generally expected to take 18 months – to prevent infection levels soaring again.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock last night admitted the economic impact of the lockdown will cause deaths. In other developments:

■ The number of UK deaths rose by a record 980 – worse than any daily death toll in Italy or Spain;

■ Boris Johnson can now have ‘short walks’ as he continues to recover;

■ Police apologised after an officer scolded a family for allowing their children to play on their own lawn;

■ Polling showed most Britons are heeding the call to stay at home;

■ Heads called for pupils to return to school before the summer break amid fears they may be off until September;

■ The total global death toll from coronavirus reached 100,000.

Ministers want to strike a balance between controlling the epidemic and mitigating damage caused by the lockdown. Rules which inflict the most harm, such as the closure of schools and small firms, will be relaxed first.

But a source leading the Government’s response said other effective measures not as damaging to the economy will have to become ‘embedded’. This includes working from home and avoiding public transport if possible.

Mr Hancock said: ‘ We take into account the entire impact on the health and wellbeing of everyone in the country. Not just on the highly visible impact on the deaths from coronavirus, but right across the board, including indirectly through the economic impact.’

Mr Hancock has previously suggested Britons who have had the virus could be given immunity certificates but there is still no antibody test to identify them. Restaurants and pubs are expected to be among the first non-essential services to open but could be made to restrict the number of patrons they let in at once.

Football clubs could be forced to maintain low attendances at matches – and even summer holidays next year could be in jeopardy.

Government adviser Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London, said the lifting of social distancing could be done by age – with the young let back to work first.

Officials have warned a vaccine programme will not be available until summer next year at the earliest. It took five years to develop an ebola vaccine. But Oxford University professor Sarah Gilbert, leading Britain’s most advanced search for a Covid-19 vaccine, last night said she was ‘80 per cent confident’ that one would be found by autumn.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam yesterday said there were some signs of improvement but the UK was still in ‘a dangerous phase’.

Lifting lockdown measures too soon could lead to a ‘deadly resurgence’, the World Health Organisation warned.

The Institute for Fiscal studies says hundreds of thousands of Britons could develop physical and mental health conditions due to the lockdown.

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‘UK is still in a dangerous phase’