Britain will extend its coronavirus lockdown for at least three more weeks as a relaxation of the measures would damage both public health and the economy, Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said on Thursday.
Britain will extend its coronavirus lockdown for at least three more weeks as a relaxation of the measures would damage both public health and the economy, Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said on Thursday.
“Relaxing any of the measures currently in place would risk damage to both public health and the economy,” he told reporters.
The move was widely expected. Raab, who is deputizing for a recuperating Boris Johnson, had already made clear before Thursday’s series of government meetings that there would be no immediate lifting of the social distancing measures announced on March 23.
“We have just come too far. We’ve lost too many loved ones. We’ve already sacrificed far too much to ease up now, especially when we are beginning to see the evidence that our efforts are starting to pay off,” said Raab.
Britons are required to stay at home unless they are shopping for basic necessities or meeting medical needs. Citizens are allowed to exercise in public once a day, and can travel to work if they are unable to work from home.
The United Kingdom has the fifth-highest official death toll from COVID-19 among Western countries, after the United States, Italy, Spain and France, although the figure only covers hospital fatalities, and the real number is probably much higher.
The U.K.’s hospital death toll from COVID-19 rose by 861 to 13,729 as of 4 p.m. ET on April 15, the health ministry said on Thursday. Broader statistics that include deaths in care homes and in the community suggest the total toll is much larger.
“We think it is too early to make a change,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock said earlier in the day.