Health minister Nadine Dorries has hinted that “full lockdown” would be required until a vaccine for COVID-19 is developed.
The government are having an important briefing this morning.
This morning the government will be briefed by scientific advisors on what the data and evidence suggests, giving the leaders of the UK options on where to go next.
After these talks, the government will continue to announce their daily updates as usual at around 4-5pm.
But after taking yesterday’s questions at the briefing, Nadine Dorries last night posted on Twitter criticising those asking questions about an exit strategy.
“Journalists should stop asking about an ‘exit strategy’,” she wrote.
“There is only one way we can ‘exit’ full lockdown and that is when we have a vaccine. Until then, we need to find ways we can adapt society and strike a balance between the health of the nation and our economy.”
And when asked to clarify what she meant by her words, she said: “I said society needs to adapt. It would be more helpful to talk about ‘relaxing lockdown’ than constantly demanding an ‘exit strategy’.
“My point being, some of you guys need to start asking more intelligent questions.”
When quizzes on why the government had refused to discuss its “exit strategy”, as other European countries such as Germany and Italy have done, Mr Hancock said: “Different countries are in different stages in this epidemic, and one of the things that I think we have learnt during this crisis is that the clarity of the guidance to the public is incredibly important and hence we repeat it.”
We need to get past the peak of the virus before any sort of relaxation happens, though, and Chris Whitty has recently said that we are “probably” a the peak but the peak is not yet over.
