‘We can’t say this virus has gone away’
BRITAIN can’t pretend the coronavirus has gone away, says the government.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said ministers had to take a careful approach to reopening the economy.
At the Downing Street press conference, he said: “We can’t just pretend coronavirus has gone away and we have eliminated the virus.
“We know from the science, and also what we are seeing from international experience, that there is a risk of a second spike if we are not very careful at this moment of time.
“So we need to keep up the social distancing, we need to keep building up and reinforcing the test and trace regime and we need to continue our steady progress in repressing the virus as we try to get life back to something like normal.”
He insisted a decision on whether to reduce the two-metre rule would be underpinned by science.
He said: “There’s no magic to one or other particular measure, there will be different levels of risk whether it’s at two metres, one-and-a-half metres or one metre.
“As we bring the incidence and the transmission rate down, depending on the setting, it’s something that can be looked at.
“We are still going to make sure that all of the policy judgments that we rightly as politicians take and are accountable for are underpinned by the science.”
Mr Raab was asked by a member of the public about what provision would be laid on for key workers’ children during the summer holidays if schools were not open.
He said: “We are working with schools, we’ve provided extra money for some of the programmes that can be provided over the recess period.”