The British Government has announced plans to extend its coronavirus lockdown for another three weeks after recording another 861 deaths, taking the total to 13,729, with 103,093 people having now tested positive for the virus, according to official figures.
Restrictions aimed at preventing the population from leaving home, apart from four exceptions will continue until early May, foreign secretary Dominic Raab said at the government’s daily coronavirus briefing.
Read:Britain becomes latest country in lockdown as police enforce new restrictions
Raab who is deputizing for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “There are indications that measures we have been putting in place have slowed down the virus. Overall we still don’t have the infection rate down as much as we would like to.
“Any change to our social distancing measures now would threaten a second peak to the virus and would require an even longer period of social distancing measures.
“The advice is relaxing any measures would risk damaging public health and our economy. Based on this advice, the government decided the current measures must remain in place for at least the next three weeks. Now is not the time to give coronavirus a second chance.”
Blanket travel restriction will remain in place, and police will have powers to fine or disperse people who venture onto the street for any other reason than to buy food, address any medical need, travel to a workplace for essential work, or undertake daily exercise.
All shops selling nonessential goods will stay closed, and gatherings of more than two people in public who do not live in the same household will continue to be banned.
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