We won’t know when the coronavirus lockdown will come to an end until at least next week, the government said this morning.
Number 10 said there were no plans to change the timeline of reviewing social distancing rules, which Boris Johnson said would be looked at again three weeks into the plan.
The three weeks runs out on Monday, but Downing Street said the review date may not be as precise as that.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We set out that we would make further announcements in three weeks and there's no change to that.”
Asked if the public should expect an update next week, he said: “I've always said you shouldn't necessarily always assume it will be on the specific day, but yes - on or around the three week mark, yes.”
The law does not say the lockdown can roll on indefinitely - it must be reviewed in some form.
It says a Cabinet minister "must review the need for restrictions and requirements" under the emergency law "at least once every 21 days, with the first review being carried out by 16th April 2020."
Boris Johnson originally said the ban on leaving home without good reason would be reviewed after three weeks - which expire at the end of the Easter weekend.
But the government has now made clear it will last for longer - and health minister Edward Argar today admitted "I don't know" when it will end.
First Secretary of State Dominic Raab said last night it was “too early” to consider an exit plan from the lockdown.
And London Mayor Sadiq Khan told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think we’re nowhere near lifting the lockdown.
“I speak to experts regularly, in fact after this I’ll have another call with Public Health England and NHS London experts.
“We think the peak which is the worst part of the virus is still probably a week and half away.”
The PM’s spokesman added: “It's too early to say when the peak is going to be.
“Our focus for now is to be relentlessly upon stopping the transmission of this disease while building capacity in the NHS. That is how we will save lives.”
Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said it was “reasonable” to assume the lockdown will last another month.
He said “it’s a mug’s game to try to predict anything in this situation”.
But asked by the BBC’s The World At One if it would be another month from now, he said: “I think that’s a reasonable assumption from somebody from the outside who’s not seeing on a daily basis the scientific recommendations.”
Mr Hunt said the UK may hit the peak “perhaps the beginning of next week” but then it would still be two to three weeks before numbers “start to decisively turn”. He added there may be different peaks in different areas.
