The United Kingdom is “starting to win” its battle with the novel coronavirus, Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said during a televised news conference Monday, but he does not anticipate the government will ease its lockdown restrictions this week.
Mr. Raab, who has filled in for Prime Minister Boris Johnson during his battle with coronavirus, thanked those who stayed home during the Easter weekend for “making all the difference.”
“Our plan is working,” he said during the press conference. “Please stick with it and we’ll get through this crisis together.”
“It’s absolutely crucially important that we do not take our eye off the ball or the public’s focus on the thing that has been a success so far in relative terms, which is our ability through widespread support for our social distancing measures to deprive this virus of the means to spread,” Mr. Raab said.
However, he warned that the U.K. has “not yet passed the peak” of the coronavirus crisis and urged people to continue to abide by social distancing and lockdown measures.
Recent data has shown that lockdown measures that have been implemented in Britain have been working to slow the spread of the coronavirus and COVID-19, the potentially deadly respiratory disease caused by the virus.
Researchers with the King’s College London said last week that data from a COVID-19 symptom tracker app among 2 million people shows that the social measures are proving effective in reducing transmission of the highly contagious virus, and reports of new cases have significantly slowed.
The United Kingdom has reported 85,212 confirmed cases, 10,629 deaths and 303 recoveries from COVID-19, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. Britain has a population of 66.4 million.
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