Four weeks after contracting the coronavirus, UK prime minister Boris Johnson is back at work and has warned against easing social distancing measures too early, fearing a deadly second outbreak.
“If we can show the same spirit of unity and determination as we’ve all shown in the past six weeks then I have absolutely no doubt that we will beat it,” the 55-year-old said, standing behind a podium outside his Downing Street home, for the first time, one month and a day after testing positive.
“We must also recognise the risk of a second spike, the risk of losing control of that virus and letting the reproduction rate go back over one because that would mean not only a new wave of death and disease but also an economic disaster.
“If this virus were a physical assailant, an unexpected and invisible mugger, which I can tell you from personal experience, it is, then this is the moment when we have begun together to wrestle it to the floor.
“I ask you to contain your impatience because I believe we are coming now to the end of the first phase of this conflict and in spite of all the suffering we have so nearly succeeded,” he said.
Looking healthy again after surviving a life-threatening bout of COVID-19, Mr Johnson compared the disease to an invisible street criminal whom Britons were wrestling to the floor.
After battling the disease at home for several days, Mr Johnson was admitted to St Thomas’s Hospital on April 5, where he spent three days in ICU.
Deputising for Mr Johnson during his illness, foreign secretary Dominic Raab told reporters on Monday local time Mr Johnson was “raring to go” and was expected to chair a meeting of the government’s COVID-19 war cabinet.
“We need to make sure that the next steps are sure-footed, which is why we are proceeding very cautiously and we are sticking to the scientific advice,” he told Sky News on Sunday.
Britain has suffered one of the highest death tolls from the coronavirus, recording 21,157 hospital deaths and thousands more yet to be quantified in care homes.
Mr Johnson stressed it was still a time of maximum risk as 158,348 British citizens have contracted the virus.
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With unemployment soaring, many companies crippled and a recession looming, Johnson said he understood the concerns of business and would consult with opposition parties pressing for clarity on a pathway out of lockdown.
“We simply cannot spell out now how fast or slow or even when those changes will be made, though clearly the government will be saying much more about this in the coming days,” he said.
Finance minister Rishi Sunak announced the latest in a series of emergency measures to try and stave off calamity, a programme of small business loans fully backed by the state.
He said the government would stand fully behind commercial loans of up to 50,000 pounds ($96,080) for emergency credit to small firms, which will not be required to meet repayments or pay interest for the next 12 months.
Mr Johnson’s spokesman said on Monday that the prime minister would meet opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, who has urged the prime minister to say when and how restrictions might be eased.
-with AAP
The post After recovering from deadly virus, PM Boris Johnson warns too dangerous to relax lockdown appeared first on The New Daily.
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