Boris Johnson urges Brits: 'I must ask you to keep going in the way that you have kept going so far'
Boris Johnson has urged Brits to "keep going" during the coronavirus lockdown in a series of posts on Twitter.
The Prime Minister, who only returned to work this week after recovering from Covid-19, acknowledged the problems that lockdown has created for many.
He said: "I know how hard and how stressful it has been to give up even temporarily those ancient and basic freedoms, not seeing friends, not seeing loved ones, working from home, managing the kids, worrying about your job and your firm.
"So let me say directly also to British business, to the shopkeepers, to the entrepreneurs, to the hospitality sector, to everyone on whom our economy depends: I understand your impatience, I share your anxiety.
"But I must ask you to keep going in the way that you have kept going so far, so we can protect our NHS and save lives."
1/3: I know how hard and how stressful it has been to give up even temporarily those ancient and basic freedoms, not seeing friends, not seeing loved ones, working from home, managing the kids, worrying about your job and your firm.
— Boris Johnson #StayHomeSaveLives (@BorisJohnson)
3/3: But I must ask you to keep going in the way that you have kept going so far, so we can protect our NHS and save lives.
— Boris Johnson #StayHomeSaveLives (@BorisJohnson)
Mr Johnson's words come after a spokesperson for No.10 told reporters that there was little prospect of lockdown ending soon.
The spokesperson said: "We don’t want to relax the social distancing measures or do anything which could lead to the virus, which the British public have done so much to suppress, being able to spread in an exponential way again, and that will guide our approach as we move forward.
"People have made huge sacrifices in order to bring down the rate of infection, to protect the NHS and ultimately to save lives and we are not going to gamble those sacrifices away by taking steps that could lead to an exponential growth in the disease again.
These comments came after comments the Prime Minister chaired the daily coronavirus morning meeting, followed by meetings of his political Cabinet and full Cabinet.
Downing Street also said the Government is “working hard” to hit its target of 100,000 coronavirus tests a day by the end of Thursday, despite currently falling short by over 20,000 according the latest available figures.
The spokesperson added: “The target is for 100,000 tests today and the Health Secretary and all of his team are working hard to hit it.”
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