Coronavirus: London 'nowhere near lifting the lockdown', Sadiq Khan says as capital may not hit peak for 10 days

Sadiq Khan has suggested the government is “nowhere near lifting the lockdown” as he claimed London may not experience the peak of the coronavirus for another week and a half.

The London mayor also urged people not to leave their homes during the bank holiday Easter weekend – except for essential reasons – as official figures showed 224 recorded deaths from covid-19 in the capital on Monday.

“When the prime minister announced the lockdown just over two and a half weeks ago, he said he would review it in three weeks time which is this Monday,” Mr Khan told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “I think we’re nowhere near lifting the lockdown.”

Government ministers have previously suggested the peak of the virus could arrive around Easter weekend, but the London mayor added: “I speak to experts regularly – we think the peak which is the worst part of the virus is still probably a week and a half way.”

“In London we lost 224 lives yesterday. We’re still am afraid on a daily basis seeing too many people losing their lives. At the moment thankfully we’ve got some spare capacity in intensive care units in London but we can’t be complacent at all.

Mr Khan also warned against possible restrictions to exercise being imposed by the government, as many people across the country “live in overcrowded accommodation often with young people” and needed exercise to keep physically and mentally healthy.

“It’s really important though that people don’t sunbathe, have barbecues in the park or play team sports,” he said. “The reason to have exercise is to make sure stay reasonably fit – to avoid having so-called cabin fever. Even though it is going to be good weather this weekend and it is a long Easter weekend.”

However, Mr Khan claimed there was a “small minority” of people last weekend who “weren’t behaving as if we were facing a global pandemic” when the country had already lost over 6,000 lives to the disease.

He said: “My message to that small minority is please understand your behaviour has an impact on others because it means the virus spread which means more pressure on the NHS and it means more people dying.”

His remarks come after the health minister Edward Argar said the government will review the current lockdown across the country “when the scientific advice is such that we appear to gone over the peak and when it is safe to do so”.

“We’re not in a position to say that evidence is there at this point to make any changes, and therefore the advice remains,” he told the BBC.

Providing an update on Boris Johnson, who has spent a second night in intensive care after testing positive for coronavirus almost a fortnight ago, Mr Argar said the prime minister is in a stable condition and in “good spirits”.

He added: “He hasn’t had to have mechanical ventilation although he did have some oxygen when he first went into hospital.

“Everyone wishes him and Carrie [Symonds] very well, wishes him a swift and full recovery. He’s not just our nation’s prime minister, for many of us he’s our colleague, he’s our boss, and he’s a friend and we’re all keen to see him make that swift recovery.”

Source: UK Politics - www.independent.co.uk