As the death toll from Covid-19 in the UK rose to 13,729 on Thursday, the British government extended the lockdown by at least three more weeks in the hope that social distancing and other restrictions will continue to have impact.
Also, the number of coronavirus cases in the UK rose to 103,093, while 861 new fatalities were reported.
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab announced the extension amid signs that the curbs are having some effect. Ministers and experts said lifting the lockdown or a return to normalcy would not be feasible until the mass availability of a vaccine for the virus.
Several projects across the globe are at various stages of developing a vaccine for the coronavirus, with one in the University of Oxford promising that it could be available by September.
Raab said, “Now is not the moment to give the coronavirus a second chance… We still don’t have infection rates down as much as we need to. Any change to social distancing measures now would risk a significant increase in infections.”
Health minister Nadine Dorries said, “There is only one way we can exit a full lockdown and that is when we have a vaccine. Until then, we need to find ways we can adapt society and strike a balance between the health of the nation and our economy.”
Epidemiologist Neil Ferguson of Imperial College, who is advising the government, said some level of social distancing would need to be retained, until a vaccine is available, calling for an emphasis on scaling up testing and contact tracing. He called for more action at the official level, noting that more preparation had been done for Brexit than to deal with the pandemic.
