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Senior ministers are meeting for a “lockdown summit” that is expected to result in movement restrictions that extend until May at the earliest.
Ahead of the COBRA meeting, Foreign Minister Rishi Sunak and other high-ranking politicians dashed hopes of ending the closure of pubs, restaurants, shops and other businesses.
Some ministers believe that the decision to lift the ban will not be made until the prime minister returns to work, and as this could take several weeks, there is no end to the COVID-19 close in sight.
A bench in a London park is cordoned off as British people are urged to stay home
Government medical and scientific advisers are still unsure when there will be a spike in the number of people who will get sick from it. coronavirus, and in the number of deaths.
With the Easter weekend looming, and the high temperatures expected for Good Friday and Saturday, experts are concerned that failing to keep instructions to stay home could prove catastrophic.
Another 938 COVID-19 patients were confirmed to have died in UK hospitals on Wednesday, bringing the total to 7,097.
Boris Johnson has spent a third night in intensive care, and his deputy Dominic Raab will chair the COBRA talks, which will be attended by cabinet ministers and leaders from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
In Johnson’s latest health bulletin on the condition, published shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday, a spokesman for Number 10 said: “The Prime Minister continues to make steady progress. He remains in intensive care.”
A few hours earlier, at the last Downing Street coronavirus press conference, Sunak said: “The last thing about the hospital is that the prime minister remains in intensive care where his condition is improving.”
“I can also tell you that he has sat up in bed and has been positively involved with the clinical team.”
At the press conference, the deputy chief scientific adviser to the government, Angela Maclean, hinted that schools could reopen before closure restrictions are eased.
When asked about reopening schools before summer, he said: “There is a very interesting job on all kinds of different things that we could do in the next stage.”
When the prime minister announced the shutdown in his televised speech on March 23, he told the nation: “I can assure you that we will keep these restrictions under constant review. We will look again in three weeks and relax if the evidence shows. We are capable of.”
This three-week period ends on Easter Monday, and the Coronavirus Act rushed through parliament last month and claims the government has until next Thursday to review the blockade.
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Although there will be no formal announcement of a decision after the COBRA meeting, Raab is expected to warn the public to prepare for an extension of the lockdown at the Downing Street press conference this afternoon.
Evidence presented at the COBRA meeting on the effectiveness of the blockade so far will be England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, and chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance.
Senior police chiefs will also report on the implementation of blocking measures and make recommendations on whether restrictions can be reduced or, more likely, whether stricter restrictions on movement are needed.
Hopes of the end of the closure of pubs and restaurants were dashed by the chancellor
Two prominent political figures expected to participate in the COBRA meeting have vigorously resisted calls to relax or end the coronavirus blockade.
Welsh Prime Minister Mark Drakeford announced: “We will not throw away the achievements we have made and the lives we have saved by abandoning our efforts just as they begin to bear fruit.”
And London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: “I think we are not close to lifting the shutdown. I speak to experts regularly. We think the peak of the worst part of the virus is still probably a week and a half away.”
