By Staff, Agencies

The United Kingdom’s coronavirus lockdown will be extended for at least another three weeks to 7 May, Dominic Raab announced.

Any change in social distancing measures would “risk damage to both public health and our economy”, the first secretary of state told the daily Downing Street press briefing.

Raab, who is deputizing for Prime Minister Boris Johnson while he recuperates from Covid-19, said the government’s scientific advisers had found indications that the spread of the virus had slowed but that it was a “mixed and inconsistent” picture.

The rate of infection was “almost certainly below one in the community”, he said, meaning infected people were passing the disease on to less than one other person on average.

“But, overall, we still don’t have the infection rate down as far as we need to,” Raab added.

There was “light at the end of the tunnel” but warned that the nation had “sacrificed too much to ease up now” on the restrictions, he also noted.

A snap poll of more than 3,400 voters by YouGov found overwhelming public support for the extension, with 91 per cent of those questioned saying they approve of a further three weeks of restrictions.

As the death toll in the UK rose to 13,729, Raab said the decision to extend restrictions was based on recommendations to cabinet from the government’s Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies in the first three-week review following the imposition of restrictions by Johnson on 23 March.