Government ministers are said to be torn over the length of lockdown restrictions imposed on the UK.
On Thursday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced that the country would need to stay at home for a further three weeks.
But there’s thought to be some disagreement in the Cabinet over whether lockdown restrictions should be lifted on May 8 or whether they should remain in place into June.
The first scenario would mean restrictions are lifted earlier, in the hope it would cause much less damage to the economy – but would risk a second virus ‘peak’.
But if lockdown is extended into early summer – it is expected to push numbers of coronavirus cases right down – but would risk further damage to the economy.
It’s believed some ministers are unhappy that there has not been a proper debate about the two options, according to the Daily Mail.
Scientists say extending the lockdown into the summer would drastically reduce transmission rates and the ‘extremely low’ level of cases would make it easier for health officials to manage the pandemic.
But this approach means the economy would continue to stall.
Meanwhile, Tory former party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the Government should stop treating people "like children" by refusing to discuss exit strategies for ending the lockdown.
He told the Times: "The Government is going to have to accept and admit we are coming out of lockdown.
"We need to trust the British people and not treat them like children. We must respect their common sense. They need to know that the sun is rising at some point in an economic sense."
Labour leader Keir Starmer has claimed an appropriate exit strategy from lockdown is ‘in limbo’ while Boris Johnson recovers from coronavirus.
The Prime Minister's spokesman said that claim was "just wrong".
Keir Starmer said ministers are failing to take decisions on when and how to return the UK to normal life - and suggested the government has not acted “quickly enough” throughout the crisis.
He added: “I suspect, although I don't know, that Dominic Raab is just reluctant - he probably does know that it's time for an exit strategy - but he's probably reluctant to sign it off without the Prime Minister and I think there's a bit of that in the mix.”
Dominic Raab has already warned the public that lockdown could go on for around three months in total.
Asked if it would take three weeks or three months for restrictions to be eased, he said: “The Prime Minister said at the outset that it would take three months to come through the peak - and I think that broadly is still the outline.”
He said government advisors SAGE will review the latest lockdown extension by the end of the month.
And Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the virus will “run rampant” if restrictions are lifted too early.
Even so, whenever lockdown is lifted, the public has already been warned that some measures may have to remain in place until a vaccine has been created.
Chief Scientific Advisor Sir Patrick Vallance said: “There may be a number of measures that need to continue in order to allow [the virus] to be suppressed and controlled whilst vaccines and therapeutics come along."
