In my personal view, the lockdown must be eased from 7th May to stop the economy suffering inreparable damage, and not do a gradual reopening starting with garden centres etc. The economy pays for the NHS. (contd)... 1/

2/ Basically, the strategy to date has rightly been to stop the NHS ‘falling over’ from a peak surge in Covid-19 cases. This has been successfully achieved. The field hospital in the NEC is not being used; we have enough ventilators, numbers in Covid-19 wards are falling. Contd..

3/ So how do we get out of the lockdown? I think we need to adopt the successful methods of social distancing, cleaning stations, control of entry/exit points we have seen at supermarkets, chemists, takeaways but expand to all shops, offices, pubs, restaurants, churches (contd)..

4/ ... able to socially distance - as has successfully been done in Sweden - subject to checks. Were there to be a second peak, the NHS now has the capacity to deal with it without requiring a second lockdown.