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Dominic Raab has warned that a "second spike" in coronavirus would cause another lockdown that would "prolong the economic pain we are all going through".

Although the UK has now probably reached the peak of the first wave of COVID-19, the Foreign Secretary, who is deputising for the Prime Minister, cautioned against ignoring social distancing rules.

Mr Raab also refused to indicate when lockdown measures would be lifted, as seen in the video above.

He told the daily press conference at Downing Street on Wednesday (April 22): "We are making progress through the peak of this virus but we’re not out of the woods yet, as Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) advised last week.

"That’s why the measures we introduced must remain in place for the time being.

"The greatest risk for us now, if we eased up on our social distancing rules too soon, is that we would risk a second spike in the virus with all the threats to life that would bring and then the risk of a second lockdown which would prolong the economic pain we are all going through."

He said that testing will "play a really important role in the next phase of the crisis".

Professor Chris Whitty added the public could expect to see more testing of the population to determine whether a second peak was occurring.

"An area we will be doing a lot more of, testing across the community to find out, at the earliest possible stage, if we’re starting to see a resurgence of this virus," he said.

"At the moment, we are relying on a situation where people get as far as hospital."

(Image: Bath Chronicle)

Prof Whitty added: "If they do that, they will have had five days in which they don’t have any symptoms, they might have had up to a week where things were getting worse and so you are behind the curve if you rely on that.

"We are going to certainly be doing a lot more population testing and we will go into details on that very shortly."

Disruptive social measures would have to remain in place until a vaccine or effective drugs to treat coronavirus can be found, which he warned was unlikely to happen this year.

Prof Whitty said: "In the long run, the exit from this is going to be one of two things, ideally.

"A vaccine, and there are a variety of ways they can be deployed… or, and or, highly effective drugs so that people stop dying of this disease even if they catch it, or which can prevent this disease in vulnerable people.

"The probability of having those any time in the next calendar year are incredibly small and I think we should be realistic about that."

Until a vaccine or treatment could be found, restrictions of some form would continue, Prof Whitty made clear.

He added: "We’re going to have to rely on other social measures, which of course are very socially disruptive as everyone is finding at the moment.

"But until that point, that is what we will have to do but it will be the best combination that maximises the outlooks but it’s going to take a long time and I think we need to be aware of that."