New Zealand’s third week in lockdown was it's most deadly, but as new case numbers continue to fall, NZ remains optimistic that Level 4 restrictions may be lifted on schedule.
The UK will remain in lockdown for "at least" three more weeks as Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, urged the British public to be patient, at a Downing St press conference overnight.
Raab, who is deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson while he recovers from Covid-19, said that lifting lockdown measures would risk a second peak with more deaths and a second lockdown.
"We've come too far, we've lost too many loved ones," said Raab, adding: "There is light at the end of the tunnel."
He stressed that the government would not relax lockdown unless five of its red lines were met. These included a sustained fall in daily death rates, sufficiently high numbers of personal protective equipment (PPE), testing and critical care, as well as confidence that any measures would not risk a second peak of the virus.
Calling this a "delicate and dangerous" time in the outbreak, Raab said: "Now is not the time to give coronavirus a second chance."
Under the extended lockdown measures, people were only allowed to leave their homes under a list of "very limited purposes", public gatherings of more than two people were banned and non-essential shops ordered to close.
These measures, introduced on March 2, were enforced by police.
A man walks past a thank you message to the NHS in central London, United Kingdom following the government's extension of the lockdown. Photo / Getty Images
Professor Gary McLean, Professor in Molecular Immunology, London Metropolitan University, said the decision makes "complete sense".
"They are quite rightly making sure that this outbreak does not expand further by releasing the control measures too soon, considering that the government were so slow in the initial phases of the pandemic to introduce lockdown this shows that they are listening and learning.
"The UK control measures should also reflect what has happened in other countries and learn from them. Wuhan, in China, had lockdown for 11 weeks and had far fewer cases than the UK at the time of lockdown. Europe has been too slow to react and the virus testing is not on a large enough scale, except for in Germany. Other European countries are still in lockdown, although some with fewer cases are relieving some control measures slowly.
"This will take time and the government is behaving responsibly and carefully now – they were slow to act in March, though, and could have done much more earlier."
Meanwhile, other European nations are facing their second major challenge of the coronavirus pandemic – tackling how to lift restrictions while keeping coronavirus transmission suppressed, news.com.au reported.
Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria and Denmark have announced plans to lift restrictions in the coming days and weeks after cases of the virus appeared to decline.
However, France and Belgium will also remain in lockdown until early May as case numbers and deaths remain high.
Europe has seen at least one million cases of coronavirus across the continent, killing more than 85,000 people and making it responsible for at least half of the global coronavirus burden.
France has said that its death toll of those in hospitals and nursing homes has risen to 17,920, up from 17,167 the previous day.
