UK extends lockdown measures for at least three more weeks

LONDON: United Kingdom has extended its nationwide lockdown on Thursday as stand-in leader Dominic Raab ordered Britons to stay at home for at least another three weeks to prevent the spread of a coronavirus outbreak.

“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,” he told reporters.

Raab is currently deputising while Prime Minister Boris Johnson recuperates from COVID-19 complications that nearly cost him his life. Raab chaired an emergency meeting on Thursday to review scientific evidence on the impact of the existing lockdown.

He said the government has decided that the current measures must remain in place for at least the next three weeks as relaxing any of the measures currently in place would risk damage to both public health and the economy.

The United Kingdom has the fifth-highest official death toll from COVID-19 in the world, after the United States, Italy, Spain and France, though British figures only cover hospital fatalities and the real number is probably much higher.

The widely-expected announcement means Britons must 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 measures were announced on March 23 for an initial three-week period. Earlier, Health Minister Matt Hancock warned the virus would “run rampant” if restrictions were lifted too soon. Raab set out five loose conditions that must be met for the lockdown to be lifted but refused to discuss any possible timeline.

Opposition Labour Party leader Kier Starmer said he supported the extended restrictions adding: “We also need clarity about what plans are being put in place to lift the lockdown when the time is right.”

The United Kingdom’s death toll from COVID-19 in hospitals rose by 861 on April 15 to 13,729. Restrictions across the globe have effectively closed down much of the world economy, and the United Kingdom is heading towards its deepest depression in three centuries.