No final decision on whether to lift the cotonavirus lock down until the end of next week, says Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab at latest Downing Street briefing

There will be no further consideration of whether or when to lift the coronavirus lockdown until the end of next week according to Dominic Raab, speaking at the daily Downing Street briefing.

Having chaired the latest Cobra meeting with representatives of the devolved administrations and the mayor of London Mr Raab, who is in temporary charge of the UK government while Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in hospital, said the lockdown will remain in place for the time being.

“At this stage the government is continuing to gather all of the relevant data to obtain the fullest picture possible of the effects of the social distancing measures that we put in place," he said.

“Now, while the early signs suggest that they are having the impact that we need to see, it's too early to say that conclusively."

He added: “I know these restrictions take their toll, take their toll day in day out of people's livelihoods, on people's quality of life, on people's mental health and I appreciate that it's often the little things that hurt the most.

“It's been almost three weeks and we are starting to see the impact of the sacrifices we all made, but the deaths are still rising and we haven't yet reached the peak of the virus, so it's still too early to lift the measures that we put in place.

“We must stick to the plan and we must continue to be guided by the science. Our top priority, our immediate priority, remains – to slow spread of the virus and to save as many lives as possible.”

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