The Cabinet is split on when to lift the lockdown with divisions over saving the economy competing with the need to suppress the coronavirus pandemic.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is understood to be worried that a long clampdown could damage the economy irreparably.
But Health Secretary Matt Hancock believes the protection of the NHS should be the overarching priority.
Others - who are understood to include Home Secretary Priti Patel, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson and Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey - have been alarmed by the problems stacking up in their departments.
It comes amid calls from Labour for the government to set out a plan for how the UK could leave lockdown and follows reports one exit strategy being considered would allow young people to be the first to resume their ordinary lives.
Other suggestions involve allowing the reopening of some shops but continuing to demand that most people work from home.
The rise in domestic violence cases by almost a third, the ballooning of benefits cases and the knock on effects on children who are away from school are big concerns.
Ministers are understood to be worried about the hidden costs of the lockdown, such as a rise in suicides due to the mental strain of isolation, or the impact of missed cancer diagnoses.
Keir Starmer said: "We will ask challenging questions, difficult questions about where we go next, about what's happened in the past but I think the whole nation desperately wants those figures go down.”
