The Government has issued an update on the UK lockdown after being asked when it could end.
At today's Downing Street coronavirus briefing, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is leading coronavirus meetings while Boris Johnson is in hospital, said the lockdown 'exit strategy' was being explored.
However, he said Government's top priority is to "stop the spread and make sure we can get past the peak".
Asked about what the Government's "exit strategy" is from the current lockdown policy, he said: "That's the overriding focus of the Government right now. The other decisions can be considered in light of the evidence that we're taking from [Dame] Angela [McLean] and [Professor] Chris [Whitty] in due course."
Government scientist,Dame McLean said more data was needed on how effective social distancing measures have been.
She said: "We need a good, long time series of data on all of these stages of infection in order to be able to tell what the impact of the measures that came on March 23 are going to be.
"It's too early to tell yet, we need people to carry on following those instructions so that we can work out three weeks later what actually happens in hospitals."
She added: "We need to know how well the current restrictions are working before we can say anything sensible about what the next stage might be."
Professor Chris Whitty, in his first public appearance since recovering from coronavirus symptoms, said that it would be a mistake to discuss the next phase of managing the pandemic until there is the confidence that the peak has been reached.
He said: "The key thing is to get to the point where we are confident we have reached the peak and this is now beyond the peak and at that point I think it is possible to have a serious discussion about all the things we need to do step-by-step to move to the next phase of managing this.
"But I think to start having that discussion until we're confident that that's where we've got to, would I think be a mistake."
