Britain unlikely to lift lockdown until end of May: govt expert

LONDON: A leading government adviser has claimed that Britain is unlikely to lift its stringent lockdown rules until the end of May, warning that the coronavirus outbreak must first slow and intense testing be introduced.

Britain’s government has put the country into a widespread shutdown and banned all unnecessary movements of people while ordering people to stay home unless absolutely essential to venture out.

The decision came in order to curb the spread of coronavirus in the country, which has almost 40,000 confirmed cases and 3,605 deaths.

Another senior government adviser said that he feared Britain had painted itself into a corner, with no clear exit from a strategy that would damage the economic and mental well-being of many people.

He further said, “If we carry on with lockdown it buys us more time, we can get more thought put into it, but it doesn’t resolve anything – it’s a placeholder.”

He also said, “We’ve kind of painted ourselves into a corner because then the question will be, what we do now? In broad terms are we going to continue to harm children to protect vulnerable people, or not?”

Country’s Health minister Matt Hancock has set a goal of 100,000 tests per day by the end of this month, a tenfold increase that industry leaders have questioned due to shortages of specialist chemicals and testing kits.