UK coronavirus restrictions will last for months not weeks, warns minister

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Tough measures against coronavirus will last for “months” rather than weeks, a Cabinet minister warned today as scientists met to consider formally when it may be safe to ease the lockdown.

Therese Coffey cautioned that Britain will not return to normality quickly, telling Sky that social distancing and self-isolation “all form part of the strategy”, adding the battle against coronavirus wasn’t going to be over in weeks, “it will take months as we try and do other elements”.

She said the development of a vaccine may take some considerable time. “In the short term, the focus is on that treatment, stopping the spread.”

The Government’s chief scientific advisers were meeting by video conference to discuss lockdown and are expected to recommend the restrictions be extended another three weeks, with the next review in early May.

Work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey
PA

Among issues that may be decided this week are whether to change advice to the public over whether face masks should be worn in some circumstances.

Before and during Coronavirus lockdown - In pictures

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In key developments:

  • Concern about the fate of elderly people in care homes and the staff who look after them deepened as Britain’s largest operator revealed that two thirds of homes had cases of Covid-19. 
  • The row over shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) in hospitals and care homes intensified. Nadra Ahmed, chairwoman of the National Care Association, said homes were struggling to pay for PPE for their staff.
  • After 12 bus drivers and six other Transport for London workers died from Covid-19, a union warned that the disease was “a killer” for people dealing with passengers. “I’m hearing, on an hourly, daily basis, horrific stories,” said Bobby Morton of Unite.
  • Heathrow called for global governments to agree a common standard on medical screening at airports so that aviation can get back to work.

Ms Coffey said Boris Johnson was “recovering well” from coronavirus at Chequers and it “will be a decision for him” whether he gets involved in the decision about lockdown.

She insisted she was “confident” that the Government will achieve its target of 100,000 coronavirus tests a day by the end of the month.

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On ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Ms Ahmed said that care homes were struggling to source and pay for PPE, and prices were “not sustainable” for the care sector.

She said the Government had removed VAT on essential kit for the NHS and urged it to do the same for the social care sector.

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