Coronavirus: UK blockade extended for ‘at least three weeks’

Closing restrictions in the UK will continue for “at least” another three weeks, said Chancellor Dominic Raab.

At daily briefing No. 10, Raab said a review concluded that relaxing the measures would risk damaging public health and the economy.

“We still don’t have the infection rate as low as necessary,” he said.

It occurs when the UK recorded another 861 coronavirus deaths in hospital, totaling 13,729.

On March 23, strict limits were introduced to everyday life, such as requiring people to stay home, closing many businesses, and avoiding meetings of more than two people, as the government tried to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

The law requires ministers to assess whether the standards work, based on expert advice, every three weeks.

Raab, deputy Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he recovers from the disease, said: “There is light at the end of the tunnel, but now we are in a delicate and dangerous stage in this pandemic.”

“If we rush to relax the measures we have in place, we risk losing all the sacrifices and all the progress made.

“That would risk a quick return to another blockade with all the threat to life that a second spike in the virus would bring and all the economic damage that a second blockade would bring.”

Raab said the review concluded that the measures were working, but there was evidence that the infection was spreading in hospitals and residences.

He said five conditions must be met before the blockage is relieved:

• Making sure the NHS can cope
• A “sustained and constant” drop in the daily mortality rate
• Reliable data showing infection rate was declining to “manageable levels”
• The supply of evidence and personal protective equipment (PPE) must be able to meet future demand
• Be confident that any adjustment would not risk a second spike

The announcement in the UK comes after a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee, which involves the prime ministers of Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

In Scotland, another 80 people have died in hospitals. Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the blockade should continue because “we are not sure enough that the virus has been removed long enough.”

Wales recorded another 32 deaths, and Prime Minister Mark Drakeford said “it is still too early to change course.”

Northern Ireland registered its highest number of daily victims, with another 18 deaths in hospitals, and England registered another 740 deaths.

Individual nation counts may differ from the UK total as they are calculated in a different time frame.

Some European countries that introduced blockade measures before the UK are now beginning to ease them, including Austria, Italy and Germany. But they continue to require some measures of social distancing, which reduce close contact between people and avoid large gatherings.

Don’t ‘go back to normal’

Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth told BBC Breakfast that Labor would support an extension to the UK restrictions.

But he asked the government to clarify “what will happen next” and to move to a “test strategy and location of contacts” to get out of the blockade.

Contact tracking aims to identify and alert people who have come into contact with a person infected with the virus, so that they can isolate themselves and avoid transmitting the infection themselves.

Previously, a scientist advising the government, Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College, said that a “significant level” of social distancing would be needed until a vaccine was found.

Professor Ferguson told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that easing the blockade after another three weeks would require “a unique emphasis” by the government on “escalating” evidence and contact tracing.

And he said the UK was not likely to “go back to normal” when the restrictions were relaxed, and social distancing measures are expected to be somehow necessary until a vaccine is available.