Covid, Boris Johnson is reluctant to end lockdown

The priority of Boris Johnson is not to end the lockdown but to avoid a second wave of infections.

The UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has told colleagues his priority concern is to avoid a second peak in the pandemic that would plunge the country back into turmoil. It is become the prospects of an early end to the crippling Covid-19 lockdown receded. That makes Boris Johnson understood to be prioritising staving off a second wave of infections.

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Covid, Boris Johnson doesn’t want to end lockdown

He delivered his views to Dominic Raab, senior adviser Dominic Cummings, communications director Lee Cain, and cabinet secretary Sir Mark Sedwill during a two-hour meeting on Friday. Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said that the PM is very concerned about a second peak if we lift the restrictions too soon. Government sources have also been frantically playing down the idea circulated by senior Tories over the weekend that schools could be reopened by mid-May, suggesting early June is more likely.

It makes Cabinet splits over how quickly to ease the draconian curbs, with fears the economic damage will kill more people than the virus itself. Some ministers have been pushing a blueprint that would see restrictions start being eased as early as May 11, when the current lockdown period ends. The ‘traffic light’ proposals suggests reopening schools part-time, and gradually allowing non-essential shops to get up and running again in an ‘amber’ phase.

But pubs and restaurants, and the over-70s could face many months more on a ‘red signal’ in isolation until a vaccine can be found or the outbreak fades altogether. However, Health secretary Matt Hancock has reportedly been arguing that easing restrictions the government should try to suppress the virus for longer so its transmission rate becomes much lower. A senior Downing Street adviser told that Mr Johnson’s decision to take ‘country breaks’ underscored his lack of urgency in the early stages of Covid-19 planning.