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PM Boris Johnson 'Cannot Say' When COVID-19 Lockdown Is Easing

27 April 2020, 09:48 | Updated: 27 April 2020, 09:58

Boris Johnson says we're making progress in beating COVID-19. Picture: Getty Images

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's made his first televised speech to the nation since recovering from COVID-19, revealing lockdown won't be lifting any time soon in order to make sure hospital admissions continue to fall.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has addressed the nation for the first time since recovering from COVID-19, pressing home the need to continue lockdown so we can continue to make progress in flattening the curve and protect the NHS.

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson addresses the nation after returning to work

Speaking outside 10 Downing Street, Boris addressed the nation in an impassioned speech about the country battling its 'single biggest challenge since the war'.

He said: "This is the moment of opportunity and of maximum risk."

"There are many people looking at our apparent success and wondering whether now is the time to go easy on these social distancing measures."

"We cannot spell out how fast, slow, or when those changes will be made, these decisions will be made with the maximum possible transparency."

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"We are making progress fewer hospital admissions, fewer COVID patients and real signs now we are passing through the peak."

"I can see the long term consequences of lockdown as clearly as anyone and entirely share your urgency...and yet we must recognise the risk of a second spike the risk of losing control and letting the reproduction rate go back over one."

He touched on his own experience with the virus which saw him admitted to intensive care, saying: "If this virus was an invisible assailant which I can tell you from personal experience, it is, this is the moment we have begun, together, to wrestle it to the floor."

The PM also gave a shout out to Captain Tom Moore, using him as an example of the 'optimism and energy' the nation needs in order to collectively beat COVID-19.

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