Boris Johnson returns to work under pressure to ease UK coronavirus lockdown
Boris Johnson faces a flurry of meetings about the UK coronavirus lockdown upon his return to Downing Street today after his own severe battle with the infection.
The Prime Minister returns to work today after three weeks of fighting off a coronavirus infection that could have killed him.
After confirming his positive diagnosis on Twitter and self-isolating above 11 Downing Street, Johnson spent days in intensive care and later said it “could have gone either way”.
Today he faces dramatic decisions on how the government will act to tackle the UK coronavirus outbreak and questions over the length of lockdown.
First he will chair a so-called war cabinet on coronavirus before holding individual talks with ministers on how their departments are tackling the virus.
He will also meet with experts to discuss changing the UK coronavirus lockdown before the government’s next legal review of the measures.
While the government may modify the UK lockdown before the next review on 7 May, it is unlikely to lift coronavirus restrictions.
Yesterday the UK reported its lowest single day death toll since March as hopes increased that the coronavirus outbreak has peaked.
The 413 deaths takes the confirmed UK death toll from coronavirus to 20,732 out of 154,037 cases.
NHS England’s medical director Stephen Powiss said: “From a couple weeks ago, those charts all showed that infections and hospital admissions and people in critical care were on the increase.
“Over the last few weeks we have seen, because those social distancing measures have been adhered to, that those curves have started to change.
“We are now beginning to see declines particularly in London, and deaths are now plateauing around the country or beginning to decline.”
European countries like Italy – the worst hit country on the continent – are easing lockdown measures. And British businesses have piled pressure on the UK to spell out when economically damaging measures will end.
But the government is also under pressure to meet its ambitious target of 100,000 coronavirus tests per day, which it promised to hit by the end of April. Last week testing was only at a quarter of that capacity.
Johnson is also reportedly keen to resume taking charge of the daily Downing Street news conferences. And he may face opposition leader Keir Starmer in Pirme Minister’ Questions on Wednesday if doctors allow him, Sky News reports.
Downing Street insiders told Sky News Johnson is “back to his normal self, excited to be back in No 10 and ready to take personal charge of the government” after a two-week recovery in Chequers.