Loading Raab used the same briefing to tell Britons it was too early to ease restrictions on public activity imposed March 23 to try to slow the spread of the virus. The original restrictions were for three weeks – a period that ends Monday. But after chairing a meeting of the government's crisis committee, COBRA, Raab said no decision on lifting the government's stay-home order and business closures would be made "until evidence clearly shows that we've moved beyond the peak" of the outbreak. Raab said "we're starting to see the impact of the sacrifices we've all made, but the deaths are still rising and we haven't yet reached the peak of the virus." He said the government and its scientific experts would assess the evidence again next week.

Loading "We mustn't give the coronavirus a second chance to kill more people and to hurt our country," Raab said. Almost 8000 people with the coronavirus have died in British hospitals, according to government figures. While the number of new confirmed cases has begun to plateau, deaths have neared the peaks seen in Italy and Spain, the two countries with the greatest number of fatalities. On Thursday, the UK reported 881 new deaths, down from the 938 recorded the day before. Italy recorded a high of 969 deaths on March 27 and Spain 950 deaths on April 2. The number of people in intensive care units for coronavirus infection in France fell slightly for the first time since the start of the epidemic, but the number of people dying in nursing homes jumped by more than 50 per cent over two days, health ministry data showed on Thursday.

Health Ministry Director Jerome Salomon said that the number of people in ICU fell by 82 or 1.1 per cent to 7066, five days after Italy also had seen that number falling. The figures may not be directly comparable, however. Not all the UK deaths reported each day occurred in the preceding 24 hours, and the total only includes deaths in hospitals – it does not include aged care homes. Loading British officials have suggested restrictions could be tightened if people flock to parks and outdoor spaces over what is forecast to be a warm, sunny Easter weekend. Currently most parks remain open and people are allowed to go outside for essential work, shopping and exercise. While most Britons have observed the rules, there have been breaches. Police in the northern city of Manchester said they had broken up 660 parties over the past two weeks, including some with DJs and fireworks.

Nick Adderley, the chief of Northamptonshire Police in central England, said on Thursday that his officers might have to set up road blocks and start "checking the items in [shopping] baskets and trolleys to see whether it's a legitimate, necessary item." Civil liberties group Big Brother Watch called those comments "outrageous" and Adderley later clarified that his officers would not be inspecting people's shopping. Johnson's government was slower than those in some European countries to impose restrictions on daily life in response to the pandemic, leading his critics to accuse him of complacency. Britain also had one of the lowest numbers of hospital beds per capita in western Europe before the pandemic, with only about 5000 intensive care beds nationwide. That number has been increased vastly in the past few weeks, both by converting other areas of hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients and by building temporary facilities, including a 4000-bed hospital at London's Excel conference centre.

So far, hospitals have been stretched but not overwhelmed. However some medics say they are struggling and still have not received adequate supplies of personal protective equipment, or PPE "We're still, by and large, wearing the same equipment that we were a few weeks ago," said Dr Nishant Joshi, an accident and emergency doctor who works in a hospital north of London. "We're getting a higher volume of patients, and they are more unwell and they're probably more contagious. "So it's fair to assume that the PPE that we were kind of making do with, it was a hit and hope situation, a few weeks ago. It's fair to say that it's no longer adequate." AP, Reuters

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