Coronavirus lockdown to be ended in stages as Treasury fear businesses won’t survive past June
THE CORONAVIRUS lockdown is to be ended in stages amid Treasury fears that businesses won't survive past June.
A list of options is being drawn up to remove the restrictions once the number of hospital admissions begins to fall.
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Civil servants have been asked to draw up options for a staggered release so Britain can get closer to going back to normal.
It comes after Treasury officials warned if the lockdown went beyond June the Government would not be able to stop normally successful businesses going under.
The restrictions are to be officially reviewed next week but with cases still rising there is little chance of anything changing soon.
Speaking this morning Housing and Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick suggested the lockdown could be gradually eased “in the weeks to come”.
Mr Jenrick explained this depended on keeping the current "excess capacity” in intensive care units “across the country”.
He said: “If we can do that then we can look in the weeks to come to begin to very carefully lift some of those measures.
“But an exit strategy that’s sustainable will also have to be accompanied by much greater testing and tracing than we are able to do today.
"There is work being done in a number of departments to monitor compliance and consider when the time is right, how one might start to ease those measures in a way that works for public health and in a way that works for the economy.
"Everyone needs to play their part, if we do that we will be able to in a sensible measure lift these restrictions sooner and begin to turn the tide on the virus."
His comments come one day on from Health Secretary Matt Hancock admitting there was not yet a plan on how to end the lockdown.
He said: “Of course there’s a debate about what happens next and what happens after that.
“But it is not a debate that we are concluding on in government because it is too early.”
The new Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has demanded more info about what happens next.
He said: “Ministers should be clear about their exit strategy.
“We should know what that exit strategy is, when the restrictions might be lifted and what the plan is for economic recovery.”
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A key adviser to the Government yesterday claimed they could not end the lockdown until they found a safe way to do so.
Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London said: “I’m very conscious that people are suffering in this country right now — we all want it over as quickly as possible.
“But there’s no point in doing this unless we can find a strategy that allows us to exit and keep transmission low.”
It comes as former Prime Minister Tony Blair claimed mass testing was the only way to get back to normal.
He said: “Unless you are able to get mass testing, at scale, with speed, I don’t see how you get a way out of this lockdown.
It's terrifying the economic damage we are doing every week in this lockdown.”
It comes as Boris Johnson was reported to have been given oxygen last night after arriving in hospital for "routine" coronavirus tests.
The PM, 55, was admitted to a London hospital on Sunday evening - 10 days after testing positive for the virus - and stayed the night there.
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