Acting British Prime Minister Dominic Raab 'to tell Britons on Thursday that we face at least another THREE WEEKS of coronavirus restrictions' with the pandemic peak still days away

First Secretary of State Dominic Raab (inset, yesterday), who is deputising for Boris Johnson while the PM recovers from his fight with the bug, will tell Britons (left, benches by the Thames, and police at Brighton) they face at least three more weeks of restrictions. Mr Raab is expected to liaise with the leaders of the devolved countries at a Cobra meeting on Thursday, where he will ask for a UK-wide (right, Whitehall and Edinburgh) approach in setting a deadline. Senior ministers are thought to be split on when is best to end the lockdown and let people start returning to work. The strict measures (centre, police enforcing the lockdown in London) are having a devastating impact on the economy, with unemployment levels rising and fewer people than the government hoped to work from home. 

But any decision to end the lockdown - implemented by the PM on March 23 - has to be balanced with the health consequences of letting people back come into close contact again. The latest death toll figures took the UK number of victims to 11,329, but the daily total of fatalities has now dropped for three days in a row for the first time since the epidemic struck. 

The strict measures are having a devastating impact on the economy, with unemployment levels rising and fewer people than the government hoped working from home.

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First Secretary of State Dominic Raab will tell the UK this week that lockdown will be extended until May 7, reports say

But any decision to end the lockdown - implemented by the PM on March 23 - has to be balanced with the health consequences of letting people come into close contact again.

The latest death toll figures took the UK number of victims to 11,329, but the daily total of fatalities has now dropped for three days in a row for the first time since the epidemic struck.

Mr Raab described the figures as 'grisly' at the daily coronavirus press conference in Downing Street, adding Britain was 'still not past the peak of this virus'. He said it meant the government could not ease social distancing.

The foreign secretary had earlier been gazumped by Nicola Sturgeon, who revealed at lunchtime the UK was likely to extend the lockdown. It was the latest example of the Scottish First Minister upstaging Number 10.

Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance added this week would be 'difficult' and he expects the daily numbers of deaths to increase before they plateau, continue to plateau for some time and then, eventually, fall.

On Sunday Britain became only the fifth country to pass the grim milestone of 10,000 deaths - the only other ones to declare this have been the US, Italy, Spain and France.

NHS England said its 667 hospital victims announced on Monday were aged between 17 and 101, and 40 of them had no existing health problems - the youngest of whom was 37 years old.

The latest death toll is a drop on Sunday's and the lowest figure since Monday last week, but a pattern has emerged of fatalities falling on Sundays and Mondays before surging during the week.

Via - Dailymail