Coronavirus: Raab Expected to Announce Lockdown Will Last Three More Weeks

A pedestrian wearing a face mask walks along Westminster Bridge in front of the Houses of
ISABEL INFANTES/AFP via Getty Images
Victoria Friedman

Senior minister Dominic Raab is expected to announce that the coronavirus lockdown will continue for another three weeks.

The First Secretary of State is deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson and is reported to be planning to announce on Thursday that the government-enforced social distancing measures will go on until May 7th. Mr Raab is expected to meet with scientists and other experts on Tuesday and Thursday to discuss lockdown options.

The ‘War Cabinet’ of Mr Raab, health secretary Matt Hancock, Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove, and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is anticipated to agree to the extension on Thursday, according to The Times, with the next review expected by the time the prime minister is recovered after suffering from severe coronavirus.

First Secretary of State Raab had signalled that the end is not likely to come soon. While the UK has seen its death toll fall for the third day in a row, scientists have estimated the Chinese coronavirus pandemic is still a week away from peaking.

Mr Raab had said during Monday’s briefing that while measures are “working”, “we are still not past the peak of this virus”, continuing: “Keep this up, we have come too far, lost too many loved ones, and sacrificed too much to ease up.”

“We don’t expect to make any changes to the measures currently in place at that point and we won’t until we’re confident, as confident as we realistically can be, that any such changes can be safely made,” he added.

The Cabinet is also divided on whether to ask Britons to go back to work if it is safe to. At the beginning of the lockdown, people were asked to work at home where they can, as non-essential shops and works like construction and manufacturing ground to a halt.

With concerns over the effects to the economy, one minister told The Times: “The original message was to carry on working but do so if you could from home. We need to find a way at the right time to get back to that message.”

Factors complicating returning to work include how to maintain social distancing on public transport, and disruptions to the supply chain for manufacturers.

Other ministers have said the government might have to wait for public opinion to change before asking people to return to work. A recent poll by Kekst CNC put nearly three-quarters — 74 per cent — of Britons behind continuing the prioritisation of limiting the spread of infection, even at the cost of a recession or depression.

One minister is reported by the newspaper to have said: “You could open every sports stadium in the country, but I’m not sure you’d get many takers.”

While another source in the Treasury said: “There’s a point where there just isn’t anything to come back to.”

They added: “You’ve got to give businesses some idea that they will be trading by mid-summer.”

The continent is also considering its options to get society and the economy back on track after weeks of national quarantines. Spain, one of the worst-hit countries in the world having suffered more than 17,000 death to date, is beginning to ease its lockdown measures, while Emmanuel Macron has announced that France will remain under strict controls for another month.

Ministers are also acknowledging, as British scientists have in recent weeks, that even if deaths plateau and hospitals can cope, long-term the message is that the pandemic is not going to simply end, but must be managed for several months.

Work and pensions secretary Thérèse Coffey told Sky News: “We’re talking about a battle against coronavirus that isn’t going to be over in weeks — it will take months.”

 

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