A REVIEW of lockdown measures will take place later this week after the hospital coronavirus death toll rose above 10,000.
Ministers have said they want to be sure the UK is past the peak of the outbreak before easing the restrictions, but 10 members of the Cabinet are reportedly urging lockdown conditions to be eased amid concerns about the impact on the economy.
The Times quoted an unnamed minister as saying it was important not to do "more damage", and measures could be eased after another three weeks.
Scientific advisers will meet on Tuesday ahead of the formal review of the strict social distancing measures on Thursday, the deadline set out in law.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who warned during his Budget last month that the UK risks falling into recession as a result of disruption caused by coronavirus, has injected £14 billion from the coronavirus emergency response fund into the NHS and local authorities.
READ MORE: Companies providing PPE to NHS prioritising England over Scotland
But the Government continues to face pressure over shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline NHS staff, as a growing number of health workers died.
And Sue Hill, a vice president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said she believed the death toll could reach 30,000, as she criticised the daily briefings by ministers as a "bit of a joke".
Referring to PPE, she told the Guardian: "The thing that irritates me is cabinet ministers are standing up every day, addressing us as if we're on a war footing and giving Churchillian quotes when they could be doing a few simple things like getting more bits of plastic and paper on to wards."
At the weekend, the Royal College of Nurses issued new guidance that nurses who could not get adequate PPE should, as a "last resort", refuse to work.
On Sunday the Department of Health said, as of 5pm on Saturday, a total of 10,612 patients had died in UK hospitals after testing positive for coronavirus, up by 737 from 9,875 the day before.
The latest analysis from Johns Hopkins University in the US suggested the UK's case fatality rate - the number of deaths per 100 confirmed cases - was 12.5%, behind only Italy's rate of 12.7%.
Scotland is in lockdown. Shops are closing and newspaper sales are falling fast. It’s no exaggeration to say that the future of The National is at stake. Please consider supporting us through this with a digital subscription from just £2 for 2 months by following this link: http://www.thenational.scot/subscribe. Thanks – and stay safe.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here