Boris Johnson announces the UK is past the coronavirus peak

Boris Johnson has announced in today’s Number 10 briefing that the UK is past the peak of the coronavirus outbreak.

Holding his first press briefing back in the office after his fight against COVID-19, Mr Johnson addressed the public.

However, the government are conscious of a second wave of the coronavirus and are keen to protect the NHS. 

Mr Johnson said: “Your effort and your sacrifice is working and has been proved to work. Today the number of Covid hospital admissions is falling, the number of patients in ICU is falling.

“We’ve so far succeeded in the most important task we set ourselves as a nation – to avoid the tragedy that engulfed other parts of the world.”

The Prime Minister said he will lay out an exit strategy next week, setting a comprehensive plan that will explain how we can reopen the economy and schools, and increase travel.

He added: “We’ve come through the peak, or rather we’ve come under what could have been a vast peak, as though we’ve been going through a huge Alpine tunnel, so that we can see the sunlight and pasture ahead of us.”

However, according to Mr Johnson the UK must satisfy five key tests before lockdown is lifted: the NHS has to be able to cope; there needs to be a sustained fall in deaths; the infection rate must also be falling; the PPE issues need to be resolved; and the country avoids a second spike.

It is still too early to lift the lockdown measures following the recent announcement that the UK has the second-highest death total in Europe. 

Prior to today’s announcement, Britain’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Jonathan Van Tam urged for extreme caution regarding relaxing lockdown measures, stating ‘nothing can be rushed’.