Britain on Thursday extended its nationwide lockdown for no less than another three weeks, as stand-in leader Dominic Raab ordered Britons to stay at home to prevent the spread of a coronavirus outbreak, which has already claimed over 138,000 lives globally.
“Relaxing any of the measures currently in place would risk damage to both public health and the economy,” he told newsmen.
Raab is deputising while Prime Minister Boris Johnson recuperates from COVID-19 complications that nearly cost him his life.
The UK has the fifth-highest official death toll from COVID-19 in the world, after the U.S., Italy, Spain and France, though British figures only cover hospital fatalities and the real number is probably much higher.
The announcement, which had been widely expected, means Britons must stay at home unless they are shopping for basic necessities, or meeting medical needs.
Citizens are allowed to exercise in public once a day, and can travel to work if they are unable to work from home.
The measures were announced on March 23 for an initial three-week period.
The arrangements, which mirror similar restrictions in many other countries, are unprecedented in peacetime Britain and have effectively shuttered vast swathes of the world’s fifth largest economy.
Earlier, Health minister Matt Hancock warned the virus would “run rampant” if the restrictions were lifted too soon.
A YouGov poll conducted before the announcement showed 91 per cent of Britons supported a three-week extension to the lockdown.
The UK’s death toll from COVID-19 in hospitals rose 861 to 13,729, as of 1600 GMT on April 15.