Covid, Dominic Raab lists the five key targets that the UK will have to achieve to lift the lockdown.
Dominic Raab announced that Britain will stay in lockdown for three more weeks. The lockdown may be lifted until it passes five key targets. The Foreign Secretary’s checks include ensuring the NHS is not overwhelmed by Covid-19 victims and seeing a steady reduction in deaths.
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Covid, lockdown: the five key targets
- The NHS must still be able to cope – with the confidence that critical care and special treatment can continue across the UK;
- A sustained and consistent fall in the daily death rates so experts are confident that the peak has passed;
- The rate of infection falling to “manageable levels”;
- Making sure that Britain has enough testing capacity and PPE to relax measures;
- Ensuring that the changes will not risk a second peak of infections that overwhelm the NHS;
Raab also added that the UK was still on course to take three months to come out of the current peak, taking the lockdown to June.
Experts also warned some social distancing measures could stay in place until a vaccine is found, which could take up to 18 months.
Mr. Raab told that Britain was at “a delicate and dangerous stage” of this pandemic. “We need to be patient a while longer. If we rush to relax the measures in place, we would risk wasting all the sacrifices and all the progress we have made. We’ve just come too far, we’ve lost too many loved ones, we’ve already sacrificed far too much to ease up now. It’s been an incredible national team effort. Now is not the moment to give the Covid-19 a second chance“.
Nadine Dorries also tweeted that there is only one way we can ‘exit’ full lockdown and that is when we have a vaccine. Until then, we need to find ways we can adapt the society and strike a balance between the health of the nation and our economy. The introduction of a relaxation/easement strategy eventually leads to a full exit.” She was backed by Prof Ferguson, who warned of “a significant level of social distancing probably needed indefinitely until we have a vaccine available”.
