UK set for long lockdown as death toll hits 4313

Britain is unlikely to lift its stringent lockdown rules until the end of May, once the spread of the coronavirus has started to slow, a leading government adviser says as the death toll rose to 4313.

The government has put Britain into a widespread shutdown, closing pubs, restaurants and nearly all shops, while ordering people to stay home unless it is absolutely essential to venture out.

The order is designed to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the country, which has almost 42,000 confirmed cases.

But some experts have started to question whether the shuttering of the economy will cost more lives in the long run.

"We want to move to a situation where at least by the end of May we're able to substitute some less intensive measures, more based on technology and testing, for the complete lockdown we have now," Neil Ferguson, a professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London, told BBC Radio.

Britain's death toll from the coronavirus rose by 20 percent to 4313 by Friday afternoon (local time) with 708 new fatalities recorded, the health ministry said.

That compared to a 23 percent rise on Thursday.

The peak of new cases could come within a week or 10 days, Mr Ferguson said, but adherence to the strict rules will determine how quickly the rate of infections decline after that.

"It is quite finely balanced at the current time," he said, adding that Britain could have quite high levels of infection for "weeks and weeks" if people start to socialise.

Britain initially took a restrained approach to the outbreak but Prime Minister Boris Johnson changed tack and imposed stringent social-distancing measures after Mr Ferguson's modelling showed a quarter of a million people in the country could die.

How the response has suffered complications

The response has since been hampered by a lack of ventilators and an inability to carry out mass testing to determine whether the public, and particularly health workers, have built up an immunity.

Mr Johnson, who has been in self-isolation after testing positive for coronavirus, has invited opposition party leaders to a briefing next week with medical advisers, including the new leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer.

"As party leaders we have a duty to work together at this moment of national emergency," he said.

Some are questioning the long-term strategy.

A second senior government adviser, the chief pandemic modeller Graham Medley, said he feared Britain had painted itself into a corner, with no clear exit from a strategy that would damage the economic and mental well-being of many people.

Almost one million people have applied for welfare benefits in just two weeks in Britain, according to official data that shows the economy is set for a depression that could be worse than the slump in the 1930s.

"If we carry on with lockdown it buys us more time, we can get more thought put into it, but it doesn't resolve anything – it's a placeholder," Mr Medley told the Times newspaper.

"We've kind of painted ourselves into a corner, because then the question will be, what do we do now? In broad terms are we going to continue to harm children to protect vulnerable people, or not?"

The government said on Saturday it would free prisoners who were deemed to be low risk and were within weeks of release.

Coronavirus: what you need to know

What is the difference between COVID-19 and the flu?

The symptoms of COVID-19 and the flu are very similar, as they both can cause fever and respiratory issues.

Both infections are also transmitted the same way, via coughing or sneezing, or by contact with hands, surfaces or objects contaminated with the virus.

The speed of transmission and the severity of the infection are the key differences between COVID-19 and the flu.

The time from infection to the appearance of symptoms is typically shorter with the flu. However, there are higher proportions of severe and critical COVID-19 infections.

What is social distancing?

Social distancing involved minimising contact with people and maintaining a distance of over one metre between you and others.

When practicing social distancing, you should avoid public transport, limit non-essential travel, work from home and skip large gatherings.

It is okay to go outdoors. However, when you do leave home, avoid touching your face and frequently wash your hands.

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Reported with AAP.