Any easing of Britain's lockdown represents a huge risk and could be stalled by an increase in infection rates, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Thursday, warning that if social distancing lapsed, the virus would spread exponentially.
Easing British lockdown is 'point of maximum risk' - foreign sec.
His comments come as Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to announce the next steps in Britain's battle to tackle the novel coronavirus on Sunday (May 10) following a review by ministers of the current measures that have all but shut the economy and kept millions at home for over six weeks.
There is no change to Britain's lockdown ahead of the review of the measures, Raab said, before the start of a holiday weekend and amid anecdotal evidence that growing numbers of Britons were breaking lockdown rules.
He added that any changes announced would be small and that if people didn't follow the rules or the number of cases started to increase, the government would tighten restrictions.
Britain's COVID-19 death toll rose by 539 to 30,615 according to figures announced on Thursday.