The United Kingdom is not planning of lifting the coronavirus or COVID-19 lockdown that got enacted almost four weeks ago for controlling the deadly virus outbreak given the increase in the death toll, a senior minister stated on Sunday.
Britain is currently at the peak of the health crisis in which over 15,000 people had died, which is the fifth-highest national death toll related to the outbreak that has claimed over 160,000 people around the world.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said a Buzzfeed report that the government was considering lifting the lockdown in phases over the coming months was not correct. "The facts and the advice are clear at the moment that we should not be thinking of lifting of these restrictions yet," Gove told Sky News.
More than 15,000 people die in Britain due to COVID-19
The latest data show 15,464 people have died in British hospitals after testing positive for the novel coronavirus, a total that has increased by more than 800 for three days running. A further 2,500 had died in care homes during the week to April 13, according to the National Care Forum, a representative body for the adult social care sector.
"One of the things that is deeply worrying and concerning is the high level of deaths," Gove said. "The evidence suggests that the rate of infection and the death rate is flattening, but we're not absolutely certain that we are yet on a downward trajectory." Gove described as "grotesque" a Sunday Times story that said Prime Minister Boris Johnson had skipped five crisis meetings to address the coronavirus pandemic early in the outbreak.
"The prime minister took all the major decisions. Nobody can say that the prime minister wasn't throwing heart and soul into fighting this virus," he added.
(With agency inputs)
