MINISTERS are looking at how to lift Britain’s lockdown gradually over the summer – but some restrictions are likely to remain in place for months to come.
As Britain enters its fourth week of lockdown, Dominic Raab has said they don’t expect any changes to be made this week, setting the scene for the lockdown to carry on into May.
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But last night he Claimed that the nation-wide shut down was working, and experts predicted that the number of cases and deaths would start to plateau in the coming weeks.
There were “positive signs” that the UK was beginning to “win this struggle”.
Work is ongoing in Whitehall on how to eventually get Britain back to normal, but it’s expected that some measures could be in place for weeks or months to come – or until a vaccine is widely available.
Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey said this morning: “ We know this is going to take months to really win the war on coronavirus. “
While work is being drawn up across several ministries, it also emerged that the Cabinet still hasn’t had a formal discussing about a lockdown exit strategy yet as a group.
One Cabinet source told The Sun: “Everyone is pretty much agreed that it’s vital to start getting people back to work as soon as possible, but there is also agreement that nobody has any clue how to do that safely yet.
“We do have to be more transparent about the trade offs and what the choices are.
“But there are 25 to different variables going into any decision on when to relax restrictions, it’s incredibly complicated. ”
One Government source told the Daily Telegraph: “No one is talking about an exit strategy any more. They are talking about emerging from the lockdown, which signals a more gradual process.
“You don’t exit viruses. That hasn’t happened in all human history. They stay around, so we will be looking very closely at what happens in other countries that are ahead of us in the curve when they start to lift their own restrictions. “
Ministers face the challenge of trying to prevent a second wave if they act too quickly, but risk seeing the economy completely grind to a halt if they wait too long.
Divisions are already opening up in the Cabinet about when is the best time to start easing off – some want to start on May 8, but others are urging them to wait until May .
Another source said that some Brits could be too nervous to go out again – even when the lockdown measures are lifted.
One source told the paper: ‘We won’t be able to lift the lockdown until the public feels ready for it.
“We have to take the public with us, by unwinding the social distancing measures rather than stopping them suddenly, and it’s up to us to make the case for it.”
Here are some of the options for lifting Britain’s three-week long shut down when the Government feels the “evidence” will show it’s safe to do so.
Experts said in a study last week that the impact of closing schools
on the spread of coronavirus was small anyway.
Ministers were expecting around a fifth of pupils to stay in school – just those of key workers – but in fact just 2 per cent are there at the moment.
As parents struggle to work from home with their kids around and help them keep up with homework, going back to school would be a welcome first step for many to try and get back to some kind of normal.
At the moment only food shops, DIY stores, banks and several other forms of “essential” shops are open.
The Government’s first step could be allowing more shops to return to normal – if they can try and keep some form of social distancing.
Clothes and charity shops or other retailers could be added to the list of shops that are permitted to open their doors again and get back to normal.
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