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British people need to carry on social distancing or risk losing the benefits of the lockdown by causing another surge in coronavirus cases, NHS England’s medical director has said.
Stephen Powis said that despite the death rate, infections and hospital admissions decreasing, now is not the time to say “we’ve done a good job” and stop complying with the restrictions.
He spoke as government data showed signs that people might be flouting the stay-at-home measures in increasing numbers, with data suggesting a “slight uptick” in the number of people driving and requesting walking and driving directions on Apple maps.
Earlier, first secretary of state Dominic Raab rejected calls to ease the lockdown, warning the UK was still at a “delicate and dangerous stage” of the outbreak.
Powis said the number of infections had started to decline “not by luck” but because of social distancing.
There is now also a “very definite trend” of fewer people being hospitalised with Covid-19, particularly in London, and there has been a decline in the number of critical care beds used for virus patients.
He told the Downing Street daily briefing: ”My fear, as the fear of all of us is, is that those curves won’t continue to go on a downward trend, but will start to go on an upward trend.
“We’re not at the point that any of us can be absolutely confident that that’s not going to be the case.
“We want to avoid a second peak, we want to avoid a rise.
“And so I can’t emphasise enough that this is not the time to say actually we’ve done a good job, we need to stop complying with our social distancing instructions and government guidance.
“This is exactly the time to keep that up, it’s exactly the time.”
Addressing the data showing a “a little hint of more people walking and driving”, Powis said: “We need to keep a close eye on that, we all need to remind ourselves that this has been a really tough four weeks and we don’t want to lose the benefits that have come from this.
“We need to keep going and we need to make sure that the number of infections continue to decline.”
Powis meanwhile joined England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty in saying he would have “no problem” with the government publishing the list of who sits on its scientific advisory group for emergencies (Sage).
The secrecy around the group’s membership has proven controversial, while No.10 is facing questions over the attendance of Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s chief advisor, at Sage.
Environment secretary George Eustice, who was chairing the daily briefing, said the group’s membership needed to stay secret because it was “important that those scientists are able to have discussion themselves free of external influence and also that we protect their own security as well”.