UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the country is at a moment of maximum risk as restriction measures continue to hinder freedom of movement and economic activities.
The prime minister said this in his first public statement since returning to work after recovering from COVID-19.
Last month, Johnson announced that he tested positive for the virus after developing symptoms.
On April 12, he was discharged from the hospital where he received treatment.
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Speaking outside Downing Street on Monday, Johnson thanked all those who kept the government running in his absence as well as UK citizens for their “sheer grit and guts” so far.
He described the coronavirus pandemic as “the biggest single challenge this country has faced since the war”, adding that the government is aware that the “virus brings new sadness and mourning to households across the land”.
The PM said the UK is making progress with fewer hospital admissions and real signs that the country is passing through the peak.
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“And thanks to your forbearance, your good sense your altruism, your spirit of community, thanks to our collective national resolve. We are on the brink of achieving that first clear mission to prevent our National Health Service from being overwhelmed in a way that tragically we have seen elsewhere,” he said.
“And that is how and why we are now beginning to turn the tide. 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.
“And so it follows that this is the moment of opportunity; this is the moment when we can press home our advantage; it is also the moment of maximum risk.”
On easing social restriction measures, Johnson said he understands how “hard and stressful it has been to give up, even temporarily, those ancient and basic freedoms”.
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He said the government is reviewing the situation, adding that citizens should exercise more patience.
“I know there will be many people looking at our apparent success, and beginning to wonder whether now is the time to go easy on those social distancing measures,” he said.
“And so I know it is tough. And I want to get this economy moving as fast as I can, but I refuse to throw away all the effort and the sacrifice of the British people and to risk a second major outbreak and huge loss of lives and the overwhelming of the NHS.
“And 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.
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“And so when we are sure that this first phase is over and that we are meeting our five tests: deaths falling, NHS protected, rate of infection down, really sorting out the challenges of testing and PPE, avoiding a second peak, then that will be the time to move on to the second phase in which we continue to suppress the disease and keep the reproduction rate – the R rate – down, but begin gradually to refine the economic and social restrictions and one-by-one to fire up the engines of this vast UK economy.”
The UK is currently the sixth country with the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases.
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There are over 152,000 cases in the country with at least 20,732 death as of Monday morning.
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