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LONDON: Britain extended its national blockade for at least another three weeks on Thursday (April 16), as alternate leader Dominic Raab ordered the British to stay home to prevent the spread of an already-claimed coronavirus outbreak. more than 138,000 lives worldwide.
“We have just gone too far, we have lost many loved ones, we have already sacrificed too much to relax now, especially when we are beginning to see evidence that our efforts are beginning to bear fruit.” he told reporters.
Raab is deputy as Prime Minister Boris Johnson recovers from COVID-19 complications that almost cost him his life. Raab chaired an emergency meeting on Thursday to review the scientific evidence on the impact of the existing blockade.
Britain’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Dominic Raab arrives at Downing Street as the COVID-19 spread continues. REUTERS / Hannah McKay
READ: “Things could have turned out anyway”: British Prime Minister Johnson was released from the hospital when deaths in the UK exceeded 10,000
“Based on this advice … the government has decided that the current measures should remain in effect for at least the next three weeks,” he said. “Relaxing any of the measures currently in place would risk damaging both public health and the economy.”
The UK has the fifth highest number of official COVID-19 deaths in the world, after the United States, Italy, Spain and France, although the British figures only cover deaths in hospitals and the actual number is probably much higher.
The announcement, which was widely expected, means that Brits should stay home unless they are shopping for basic necessities or meeting medical needs. Citizens can exercise in public once a day, and can commute to work if they cannot work from home.
The measures were announced on March 23 for an initial period of three weeks. Medical advisers speaking with Raab said they had reduced the overall rate of transmission of the virus to less than one, meaning that it was now declining in the community.
Raab established five loose conditions that must be met for the blockade to be lifted, but declined to discuss any possible timeline.
Previously, Health Minister Matt Hancock warned that the virus “would run rampant” if the restrictions were lifted too soon.
A YouGov poll conducted before Thursday’s announcement showed 91 percent of Britons supported a three-week extension to the blockade.
THE SUN WILL SHINE AGAIN
The number of deaths in the UK from COVID-19 in hospitals rose from 861 to 13,729, from 1600 GMT on April 15.
In the midst of the gloom, however, there was some good news.
Tom Moore, a 99-year-old British war veteran, completed 100 laps of his lawn on Thursday, raising more than £ 12m ($ 15m) for the health service.
“For all those people who are having difficulties right now: the sun will shine on you again and the clouds will go away,” he said.
Restrictions around the world have effectively shut down much of the world economy, and the UK is heading for its deepest depression in three centuries.
As leaders around the world begin to contemplate ways to get out of the shutdown, epidemiologists have warned that a second wave of the outbreak could endanger the weak and the elderly.
Neil Ferguson, a professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London who advises the government, said Britain would likely have to maintain a certain level of social distancing until a vaccine for the new coronavirus is available.
“If we relax the measures too much, we will see a resurgence in the transmission,” he told BBC radio. “If we want to reopen schools, let people go back to work, then we need to keep transmission low in other ways.”
GlaxoSmithKline CEO Emma Walmsley said Wednesday that a vaccine was unlikely to be ready before the second half of next year.
READ: The world will need more than one COVID-19 vaccine, says GSK CEO
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