UK GOVERNMENT ministers have warned it is too soon to start lifting the coronavirus lockdown measures after Boris Johnson spent a second night in intensive care with Covid-19.
The Prime Minister is in a stable condition, according to the latest Downing Street bulletin, and he remains in “good spirits” in hospital.
On Monday Johnson had been due to oversee a three-week review of the lockdown rules brought in last month to slow the spread of the virus, but he was taken to hospital as his own condition worsened.
With the number of cases continuing to rise, health minister Edward Argar made clear it’s too soon to lift restrictions.
READ MORE: Coronavirus lockdown could slash 25% off Scotland’s GDP
"We need to start seeing the numbers coming down and that's when you're in the negative," he told BBC Breakfast.
"That's when you have a sense when that's sustained over a period of time, that you can see it coming out of that.
"We're not there yet and I don't exactly know when we will be. The scientists will tell us that they are constantly modelling the data and they're constantly looking at those stats.
"We should also remember there is always a lag of a couple of weeks in the hospitalisation and death rate data behind the actions that we've taken to try to slow it down, because that's the nature of the disease."
It followed a similar warning on Tuesday from Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab - who is deputising Mr Johnson in his absence - who said ministers first need to see evidence that the measures are working.
The Government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said the figures "could be moving in the right direction", but suggested they need another "week or so" before they could be sure.
Meanwhile Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, has said the UK needs to learn from the example of Germany where the number of deaths appears to be growing more slowly.
"We all know that Germany got ahead in terms of its ability to do testing for the virus and there's a lot to learn from that and we've been trying to learn the lessons from that," he said.
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