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    Boris Johnson resists easing of coronavirus lockdown Archived Message

    Posted by Mary on April 20, 2020, 7:34 am, in reply to "Today's papers. Note Sky put the Soaraway Sun first!"

    Lifting restrictions risks second wave, PM tells colleagues
    Steven Swinford, Deputy Political Editor (Times)
    April 20 2020,
    Boris Johnson is said to be concerned that relatively little is known about the effect of easing restrictions on the transmission rate of the virus

    Boris Johnson is said to be concerned that relatively little is known about the effect of easing restrictions on the transmission rate of the virus

    Boris Johnson has told colleagues that he is very cautious about easing lockdown restrictions and that his “overriding concern” is avoiding a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

    The prime minister, who is recovering from Covid-19 at Chequers after several nights in intensive care, held a two-hour meeting on Friday with Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, Dominic Cummings, his most senior adviser, and Lee Cain, his director of communications.

    Sir Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary, joined the call by video conference with several of the prime minister’s senior advisers, including Sir Eddie Lister, Munira Murza and Liam Booth-Smith.

    Mr Johnson said that his priority was to help Britain to recover and return to what aides have described as a “new normal” after the pandemic had passed its peak. He raised concerns that lifting restrictions too soon could result in a “second peak” and bring another lockdown, with a significant cost to health and the economy.

    “The idea that we will be rushing to lift measures is a non-starter,” a government source said. “If the transmission rate rises significantly we will have to do a harder lockdown again.”

    Mr Johnson’s position is in contrast to that of Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, and Rishi Sunak, the chancellor. They suggested at a meeting last week that, once the peak of the virus had passed and the transmission rate had lowered, the government should “run things quite hot” and ease restrictions.

    Matt Hancock, the health secretary, argued that the government should suppress the virus for longer so that its transmission rate was significantly lower before easing restrictions.

    “It’s a question of how comfortable you are with the virus circulating in the community,” a source said. “Everyone wants the rate of transmission to be below 1 [when one person infects, on average, less than one other person]. But the question is how much lower it should be.”

    Mr Johnson is concerned that relatively little is known about the effect that easing individual restrictions could have on the transmission rate. The prime minister is expected to take a more active role in overseeing the response to coronavirus this week, with daily updates and regular conversations with Mr Raab. He is not expected to return to No 10, however, for some time and will do so only on the advice of his doctors.

    Mr Raab, who is deputising for Mr Johnson, is said to have largely kept his counsel during meetings to avoid “overstepping the mark” while the prime minister is recovering.

    Some cabinet colleagues, however, believe that he is likely to be among those pressing for restrictions to be eased once Mr Johnson returns to Downing Street. “He has kept his cards very close to his chest but that will change once the prime minister is back,” a minister said.

    The government has extended the lockdown for another three weeks, until the beginning of May. Despite pressure from cabinet ministers, schools are not expected to reopen until after half-term at the end of May.

    There is some discussion about lifting other restrictions earlier, such as reopening garden centres, but there are unlikely to be changes before May 7.

    In other developments:

    • The coronavirus death toll rose in Britain by 596 to 16,060, the lowest daily figure for a fortnight.

    • The Resolution Foundation think tank said that as many as 11.7 million people could be furloughed or unemployed in the next three months.

    • NHS bosses said that they would back doctors and nurses who refused to treat patients because of a lack of personal protective equipment.

    • Elderly people with coronavirus are dying in pain and without dignity because of red tape, care chiefs said.

    Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust and a government adviser, said yesterday that the lockdown should be eased within weeks. He told Sophy Ridge on Sunday on Sky: “The damage it’s doing to all of our health, our wellbeing, our mental health, is disproportionately of course affecting the most vulnerable. I hope we will get there in three, four weeks’ time because it is clear that the lockdown can’t go on for much longer.”

    He urged the government to start preparing for further waves of infection. “We should not see this as a discrete episode,” he said. “I think the probability and what we must be planning for is that there will be further waves of this in the future.”

    After the news yesterday that an 84-tonne shipment of PPE from Turkey had been delayed, NHS bosses issued an exasperated statement telling the government not to make promises it cannot deliver.

    NHS Providers said that it had learnt from “bitter experience” that it could not count on promises of PPE deliveries until they had arrived and urged the government to “just focus on what we can be certain of”.

    The NHS Confederation warned of a “loss of confidence” and said that it expected ministers to make “announcements when supplies have arrived, not promises about what may or may not be delivered”.

    The group said that confidence would not be restored until there was a stable supply of PPE. It said it would back doctors and nurses who refused to treat patients because a lack of protective equipment put them at risk of infection.

    The government had to respond yesterday to reports that Mr Johnson had missed five Cobra meetings in the run-up to the outbreak. A spokesman said: “It is entirely normal and proper for Cobra to be chaired by the relevant secretary of state. [In 2009] then health secretary Alan Johnson chaired Cobra during H1N1. Michael Gove chaired Cobra as part of no-deal planning.”

    The spokesman added that when Mr Johnson had missed the meetings, “the World Health Organisation had not declared Covid-19 a ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’, and did so only on January 30. Indeed, they chose not to declare a PHEIC the day after the Cobra meeting.”

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/boris-johnson-resists-easing-of-coronavirus-lockdown-mgk3t9btg

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