UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday said that he could begin to ease a nationwide coronavirus lockdown next week, but warned he would do nothing that would risk a new surge of cases.
He was speaking the day after Britain overtook Italy to become the worst-hit country in Europe, with more than 32,000 deaths related to COVID-19 – behind only the United States in the global rankings.
PM Johnson further added that “every death is a tragedy”, calling the statistics “appalling”, but said there was not yet enough data to make international comparisons.
In particular, he said he “bitterly regrets” the deaths in care homes, which stand at more than 6,000, but added that there had been a “palpable improvement” in the last few days.
The wider death rate is coming down, six weeks after the government imposed stay-at-home orders to stem the rate of infection, and the lockdown measures are up for review on Thursday.
Speaking in parliament for the first time since he himself was hospitalised with coronavirus, Johnson said the government would review the data and he would set out the next steps on Sunday.
“We’ll want if we possibly can to get going with some of these measures on Monday. I think it would be a good thing if people had an idea of what is coming,” he said.
On Thursday, Johnson said that the country “past the peak” of its coronavirus outbreak.
The country is now the third-most affected in the world behind the United States and Italy on cumulative deaths, after changing its reporting to include community as well as hospital deaths on Wednesday.
Johnson returned to work in Downing Street on Monday but missed Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday following the birth of his son.
The government is currently trialling a “track-and-trace” system using a dedicated phone app that it hopes will be able to identify localised outbreaks of coronavirus.