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The Business Secretary has warned the UK could experience a “dangerous” second peak of coronavirus cases if the lockdown imposed by the Government is lifted too early.
Alok Sharma told the daily Downing Street Covid-19 press conference that a second peak could mean the public’s effort to stay at home are “wasted”.
It came as the UK experienced its biggest day-on-day rise in deaths since the outbreak began.
Some 2,352 patients have died in hospital after testing positive for the virus as of 5pm on Tuesday, up by 563 from 1,789 the day before.
Mr Sharma said: “People will understand across the country why we have put these restrictions in place and the Prime Minister was very clear they were for an initial three-week period and we would review them.
“But what’s also really important is that if we stop these too quickly, there is a possibility that that massive effort people have made across the country is wasted and we could potentially see a dangerous second peak.
“We absolutely want to avoid that.”
Professor Yvonne Doyle, director of health protection at Public Health England, added that the measures would be lifted when the time is right.
“I think it is important to say we are looking at this through the scientific lens, as well as through modelling and through the information we are getting through clinical cases as to how this epidemic is progressing,” she said.
“We will be guided by that. We obviously want to make the right call at the right time on this and it is something that we have to keep reviewing every week.”
Prof Doyle said that it is still too early to say whether the plateau of hospitals admissions has ended.
She added: “But we’ve now seen three days of increases in a row and again, we need to protect the NHS, and the best way to do that is to stay at home, to avoid catching the disease yourself and obviously avoid giving it to anyone else.”
On hospital admissions, she said London “is where coronavirus is most advanced”, adding: “But the chart shows that the threat is everywhere, we need to protect the NHS everywhere and the Midlands now is obviously a concern as well.”
Comparing the UK to other countries, Prof Doyle added: “As things stand it has not been as severe here as in France and we’re just tucked in under the USA and obviously Italy on a different trajectory, but… and Spain and the United States, as we’ve said.
“But there’s no reason to be complacent.”
Meanwhile, Spain has reported a new record of 864 deaths in one day while total infections broke the 100,000 mark, making it the third country to surpass that milestone behind the United States and Italy.
Spanish health authorities said on Wednesday that the total number of deaths reached 9,053 since the beginning of the outbreak.
Total infections hit 102,136. But the 24-hour increase of 7,719 was 1,500 fewer than the increase from the previous day, offering hope that the contagion rate is stabilising.
