As PM is moved out public urged to stay
to consider how it would proceed with the three-week review, due next week, of the lockdown rules.
He said the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) would be looking at the evidence but it would not be possible to say any more until the end of next week.
Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s chief scientific adviser, said measures were “breaking transmission” of the disease with signs of a “flattening off” in the numbers of new cases and hospital admissions.
However he warned the numbers of deaths would continue to rise for a “few weeks” and that it was too soon to relax social-distancing.
“It is incredibly important that we continue to do what we are doing,” he said.
The chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said that while the numbers admitted to intensive care had been doubling every three days, that had now slowed.
“This is really now becoming not quite flat, but the doubling time is now six or more days in almost everywhere in the country and extending in time,” he said.
Meanwhile Mr Raab said that Mr
Johnson was continuing to make “positive steps forward” as he prepared to spend a fourth night in intensive care at St Thomas’ Hospital in London.
He said he had not spoken to the Prime Minister since he was admitted to hospital at the weekend but insisted that he had “all the authority I need” to make key decisions in his absence.
Earlier, with police forces across England and Wales making clear they would be stepping up measures over the weekend to ensure the rules were enforced, Downing Street said they were acting with the full support of Government.
“We have given them a job to do. They will use their own discretion about how they best do that job,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.
“The powers which we have given the police are there to save lives. The police have our full backing and they have the public’s backing too.”
However there was a rebuke for Northamptonshire Chief Constable Nick Adderley after he suggested his force could mount road blocks and search shopping trolleys to check if people were going out to buy nonessential items.