The U.K. is extending its nationwide coronavirus lockdown for at least another three weeks.
Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said Thursday the country's infection rate had yet to slow down enough to warrant any changes to current social distancing measures.
"If we rush to relax the measures that we have in place, we would risk wasting all the sacrifices and all the progress that has been made," Raab said. "And that would risk a quick return to another lockdown with all the threat to life that a second peak of the virus would bring and all the economic damage that a second lockdown would carry."
Raab said before any easing of restrictions are considered, the U.K. needs to see a "sustained and consistent fall in the daily death rate," and evidence that the rate of infection has fallen "to manageable levels." And although some European countries have already begun relaxing measures, Raab said the government ultimately "[has] to do what is right for the British people based on the advice of our experts grounded in the provisions prevailing here in the U.K."
"It's been an incredible national team effort, now is not the moment to give the coronavirus a second chance," Raab said. "Let's stick together, let's see this through and let's defeat the coronavirus for good."
Contains footage from CNN.
