Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday warned against relaxing the coronavirus restrictions too soon as the country was still facing a moment of “maximum risk”, in his first remarks since returning to work after contracting the disease that has killed over 20,000 in the UK.
While declaring that the tide is being turned on thecoronavirus pandemic in the country, he urged the British public to containtheir impatience against the crippling lockdown.
“We are beginning to turn the tide…There are real signs weare passing through the peak,” said Johnson, in an upbeat address to the nationon the steps of 10 Downing Street.
Johnson, 55, had been recuperating from his intensive caretreatment at a London hospital earlier this month after he contracted thedeadly virus. He returned to 10 Downing Street on Sunday evening from his primeministerial countryside retreat at Chequers, where he had been based since hisdischarge from St Thomas’ Hospital on April 12.”I ask you to contain your impatience because Ibelieve now we are coming to the end of the first phase of this conflict,” hesaid, promising “maximum transparency” on the decisions to be taken as the UKenters phase two of the Covid-19 fightback, which will involve one by onefiring up the “economic engines” of the UK economy.