Government extends lockdown for at least three weeks as UK death toll reaches 13,729

At today’s press conference, Dominic Raab, Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State, announced that the lockdown measures in place across the UK would continue as rules are tightened in an attempt to slow the spread of Covid-19.

On the eve of Monday, March 23, Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the UK into lockdown – a measure which hoped to slow the spread of coronavirus and save lives.

When the lockdown restrictions were imposed the UK’s death toll stood at 335. In 24 days the number of hospital patients who have lost their lives after testing positive with Covid-19 has risen to 13,729.

Mr Johnson told the nation the restrictions would be in place for at least three weeks and would be kept under constant review.

Since then the Prime Minister has spent a week in hospital, including a number of days in intensive care, and the re-evaluation was delayed.

Today, Thursday, April 16, the Conservative Government announced the lockdown would be extended for a further three weeks.

Members of the public are now being told to:

Only go outside for food, health reasons or work (but only if you cannot work from home)

If you go out, stay 2 metres (6ft) away from other people at all times

Wash your hands as soon as you get home

Do not meet others, even friends or family.

Anyone can spread the virus even if they don’t have symptoms.

The extended lockdown comes as contractors and health workers are working around the clock at Sunderland-based Nightingale Hospital North East to ensure it is open by the end of the month.

The 460-bed hospital, which will open near Nissan’s Washington plant in an industrial unit bigger than a football pitch, is an ‘insurance policy’ and should reassure the public that the North East is ready to fight the coronavirus.

The Nightingale Hospitals are part of a nationwide effort to respond to the greatest global health emergency in more than a century.

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