It is too early to begin discussing an 'exit strategy' from the current coronavirus lockdown, two government experts said today.
The country is now entering its third week of enforced social distancing.
When he announced the strict new measures on March 23, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, currently in hospital with Covid-19, said they would be reviewed every three weeks.
However both Mr Johson's de facto deputy, Dominic Raab, and two government experts all said today it was too early to begin discussing when they be may be relaxed.
Foreign Secretary and first secretary of state Mr Raab said: “The risk right now is if we take our focus off the strategy which is beginning to work, is that we won’t get through the peak as fast as we need to, which is why it’s perfectly legitimate to ask the question, but the government’s over-riding priority has got to be to keep up the work and the commitment that so many people have made to make sure that we maintain the social distancing.
"We stop the spread, we protect the NHS as we come through the peak.”
Chief Medical Officer 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 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.”
Professor Dame Angela McLean, deputy chief scientific adviser, said the efforts by Britons to stay at home “are working”, and said the growth in the number of Covid-19 cases in hospitals is “not as bad as it would have been if we had not made these efforts."
She said: “It is working but the big question is, is the virus spread slowing down enough to make hospital admissions stabilise and then even fall?”
Dame Angela said the hospital admissions data by region had risen “very steadily” until April 1 and then showed a “more complicated behaviour, starting we hope to slow down”.
She added: “It really is too soon to see the effects of the big changes we’ve all made to our lives from March 23 onwards because that’s only two weeks ago and it takes several weeks after you’ve become infected for you to realise you’re ill enough that you really need to be in hospital.
“We’re all watching these numbers very, very carefully and we’re very much hoping what’s going to happen next is they will at least stop rising.”
