Don t show me this message again✕
Pressure is intensifying on Boris Johnson to delay England’s planned release from lockdown restrictions on 21 June, after new figures showed rising infections and hospitalisations and scientists warned premature relaxation could lead to a dangerous spike in Covid-19.
Concerns were fuelled by the announcement of 4,182 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK the highest daily number since the end or March as well as new estimates that the all-important R rate of reproduction of the disease has now risen back above the crucial level of 1, meaning the virus is spreading exponentially.
Downing Street insists that it is too early to say whether the prime minister will be able to give the go-ahead on 14 June for the removal of most remaining curbs a week later, after he warned on Thursday that the country may have to wait longer.