The PM reiterates the government’s five tests for ending lockdown; protecting the NHS, seeing a sustained fall in death rates, a fall in the rate of infection, sorting out “challenges” – such as procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) – and stopping the so-called R number rising up over one and causing “exponential growth” of the virus.
He says we “cannot move forward unless we satisfy the five tests”.
Johnson announces the previewed plans by launching a new “Covid Alert System” which, he says, will be run by a new Joint Biosecurity Centre.
He says the level the country is at will be determined primarily by the R number and the number of coronavirus cases, and “will tell us how tough we have to be in our social distancing measures”, namely “the lower the level, the fewer the measures, the higher the level, the tougher and stricter we will have to be”.
