Dominic Raab: lockdown will last at least until May 7

The first secretary of state said that the lockdown will continue at least until May 7, otherwise the virus could continue to make even more deaths.

Dominic Raab who is the Foreign Secretary is set to tell the country on Thursday the Covid lockdown will last until at least May 7. The First Secretary of State, who is deputizing for Boris Johnson while the PM recovers from the deadly bug, will tell Britons they face at least three more weeks of restrictions.

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Covid: the lockdown will continue at least until May 7

Raab is expected to cooperate with the leader of the devolved countries at a Cobra meeting on Thursday, where he will ask for a UK-wide approach in setting a deadline.

Senior ministers are thought to be split on when it is best to end the lockdown and have been told to drop talk of an ‘exit strategy’ as the peak of deaths is yet to hit.

The strict measures are having a devastating impact on the economy, with unemployment levels rising and fewer people than the government hoped are working from home. Nevertheless, any decision to end the lockdown has to be balanced with the health consequences of letting people come into close contact again. Mr. Raab described that Covid-19 in Britain was ‘still not past the peak of this virus’. So that the government could not ease social distancing.

Speaking at yesterday’s press conference, Mr. Raab said: ‘This week SAGE [Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies] will review the evidence of the effectiveness of the social distancing measures that we have taken and we will consider their assessment based on the evidence at that point“.

The de facto PM also told to keep following the guidance to stay home, save lives and protect the NHS. Then he adds that if we let up now, the virus will only take full advantage, it will spread faster and it will kill more people. The latest death toll figures took the UK number of victims to 11,329, but the daily total of fatalities has now dropped for three days in a row for the first time since the epidemic struck.