Ministers set to approve three-week extension to lockdown

Ministers are expected to announce a three-week extension to the UK’s lockdown.

Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, is due to lead a Cabinet meeting in the Prime Minister’s absence later today, where Ministers are expected to approve a three-week extension to the lockdown.

A labour spokesperson said the party would support an extension, but reiterated Sir Keir Starmer’s call for the government to publish a plan on when and how it would eventually end.

It comes as deaths across the UK approach 13,000.

Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab will chair a meeting of the Cabinet later today. (Photo by Peter Summers/Getty Images)

On Monday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told the press that the Scottish government “will not hesitate” to diverge from the UK policy on lifting Covid-19 restrictions if the scientific evidence suggests it could save lives.

Almost 1,000 people are thought to have died from the virus in Scotland, according to the National Records of Scotland.

Downing Street confirmed that the administration in Edinburgh had the power to take its own approach on the lockdown.

But at a press briefing earlier this week, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon admitted that, despite “early optimistic signs” that they were working, it was unlikely the restrictions would be lifted soon.

Scotland’s National Clinical Director, Jason Leitch, told the BBC that the country was trying to avoid the “doomsday scenario” seen in Japan, where islands that lifted lockdown measures after seeing a fall in cases saw a significant surge in new infections.

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