UK extends lockdown for ‘at least’ three weeks

UK has decided to extend nationwide lockdown on Thursday to tackle the pandemic for “at least the next three weeks”, as the country remain the worst-hit by the COVID-19 with hundreds dying daily.

According to the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is deputising  Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he improves from coronavirus, said it was “too soon” to lift the stringent social distancing regime rolled out last month.

Raab, while addressing at a press conference at the daily Downing Street said, “The government has decided that the current measures must remain in place for at least the next three weeks”.

“The worst thing we could do right now is ease up too soon,” he added.

It is pertinent to mention that PM Johnson ordered the initial three-week lockdown on March 23 to combat the pandemic, shutting “non-essential” shops and services, and banning gatherings of more than two people.

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus and deaths has surge dramatically in Britain, with more than 100,000 people now infected and nearly 14,000 fatalities among those hospitalised.