Back at work, British PM Johnson faces lockdown Catch-22

CRITICISM

Since the lockdown was imposed on March 23, his government has faced criticism from opposition parties and some doctors for limited testing capabilities and lack of protective equipment for some frontline health workers.

Opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer urged Johnson to set out when and how an economic and social lockdown might be eased - as did some Conservative Party donors.

"Simply acting as if this discussion is not happening is not credible," Starmer wrote in a letter to Johnson.

He said the government had been too slow to impose the lockdown, to expand testing and to get personal protective equipment (PPE) to hospital and care home staff.

Johnson is expected to announce plans for how the lockdown could be eased as early as this week, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Latest data on Sunday showed deaths related to COVID-19 in hospitals were up by 413 in the previous 24 hours, the lowest daily rise this month. A total of 29,058 tests were carried out on April 25.

Based on those statistics, the United Kingdom has the fifth worst death toll in the world, after the United States, Italy, Spain and France.

But the full British toll is much higher as statistics for deaths outside hospital - for example in care homes - are slower to be published.

However, Stephen Powis, medical director of the National Health Service in England, said the "very definite" downward trend in coronavirus cases in hospital demonstrated that social distancing was reducing virus transmission and spread.