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All the broadsheets lead this morning with yesterday's announcement from Dominic Raab that the lockdown will be extended for at least another three weeks and, in all likelihood, will last for three months from the date it was first imposed (March 23rd), which takes us into June. Raab also set out five "tests" that will have to be met before the lockdown will be lifted: that the NHS is able to provide sufficient critical care to meet demand; "a sustained and consistent fall in the daily death rates from coronavirus so we are confident that we have moved beyond the peak"; "reliable data from SAGE showing that the rate of infection is decreasing to manageable levels across the board"; that the supply of tests and PPE is sufficient to meet demand; and, finally, that any "adjustments to the current measures" won't risk a second peak of infections that overwhelms the NHS. The first thing to be said about these five "tests" is that the first, third, fourth and fifth all relate to the capacity of the NHS and its suppliers and could have been combined into a single "test"; only the second is non-NHS related. Would two "tests" have sounded as if the Government wasn't taking the crisis seriously enough? They're also frustratingly vague. How is "a sustained and consistent ...
