Lockdown restrictions lifted before experts ready to lower coronavirus threat level from ‘high’, No 10 admits

Lockdown restrictions are being lifted in England before experts are ready to reduce the coronavirus threat level from “high”, No 10 has admitted.

Boris Johnson had been expected to lower the alert level from 4 to 3 when he gave the go-ahead for groups of six to mix in gardens and parks, but failed to mention it.

Now his spokesperson has conceded the level remains at 4 – where transmission of the virus is said to be “high or rising exponentially” – while arguing it is “coming down from 4 to 3”.

The decision to ease the lockdown carries “some risk” while new daily cases in England remain near 8,000, said Professor John Edmunds, who attends the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).

Professor Edmunds questioned whether the test, track and trace system would be able to keep the so-called R value, or reproduction rate, below one unless “significant numbers of wider social distance measures” were in place.

Professor Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, and also a member of Sage, agreed. He said infection rates must be lowered before restrictions are eased. He tweeted: "Covid-19 spreading too fast to lift lockdown in England. Agree with John [Edmunds] & clear science advice."

And ahead of another warm weekend, police warned the public not to jump the gun in England. Officers reminded the country that it will still be illegal to socialise in public in groups of more than two until the new measures come into force on Monday.

On Wednesday, before the lockdown-easing announcement for England, the prime minister told MPs: “We’re coming down from level 4 to level 3, we hope, we’re taking a decision tomorrow.”

Downing Street also made clear the police would not check gardens to ensure no more than six people are meeting together, ahead of guidance being published before the weekend.

“Under the regulations, the police do not have the power to enter a home,” the prime minister’s spokesperson said – stating that could only be done if “serious criminality” is suspected.

He also warned barbeque-enthusiasts they must hold out over the weekend and wait until “happy Monday”.

It is unclear when the issue of the current threat level will be discussed or decided by the government’s new Joint Biosecurity Centre, despite restrictions being eased in just 48 hours’ time.

Strikingly, the “action” set out by ministers when the threat is at level 4 states: “Current social distancing measures and restrictions.”

Instead, Mr Johnson chose to lift the ban on meeting only one member of another household in favour of up to six. He also announced that primary schools would reopen – going further than Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Later, at the daily briefing, the chancellor appeared to dump the alert levels together, suggesting all that mattered was meeting the 5 tests that had been introduced previously.

Notably, the slide setting out the alert levels – which would have showed that “current” restrictions should be remaining in place – had been dropped from the presentation altogether.

Rishi Sunak also suggested the start of the test, track and trace scheme had given ministers freedom to ease some curbs, even though its launch has been fraught with problems.

He denied “the decision had been taken, whatever the advice coming”, insisting ministers are still following “the latest scientific advice” and that those scientists are “completely aware of everything that we are doing”.

The confusion follows an apparent divide between the prime minister and his chief scientific adviser when the easing announcement was made at the daily briefing on Thursday.

While Mr Johnson gave the go-ahead to barbeques, Patrick Vallance was more cautious – warning the critical R reproduction rate was still “close to 1” and that England’s nearly 8,000 new daily infections is “not a low number”.

The government’s own rules state that a “gradual relaxation of restrictions and social distancing measures” should only happen when the alert level is lowered to 3.

But, asked to explain if the alert levels and rules had now been “decoupled”, the spokesperson told journalists: “I don’t think it has.”

He said easing was “always dependent on us meeting the five tests, which we are currently doing, and scientific advice in relation to the R rate”.

But he also acknowledged the Joint Biosecurity Centre was still not fully operational.

“It’s carrying out some of its functions already, including giving support to the chief medical officers. It will be fully operational in the coming weeks,” the spokesperson said.

Mr Sunak told the briefing: “We set out the five tests very clearly and, because we are now meeting the five tests, because of the heroic efforts of everyone at home, the NHS, everyone, we are in a position to carefully and deliberately start to release the restrictions.

“I wouldn’t say that that’s happening in a reckless or big bang way. As the prime minister set out, it’s been done in quite a measured and phased way progressively, to make sure that we can keep an eye on things, and we’re not running before we should.”