Doctor insists it is "too early" for the Prime Minister to ease lockdown

8 May 2020, 13:47 | Updated: 8 May 2020, 13:50

Doctor insists it is "too early" for the Prime Minister to ease lockdown

This doctor told LBC why it will be "too early" for the Prime Minister to ease lockdown on Sunday.

The Prime Minister is set to announce "incremental" lockdown changes on Sunday night which will come into place from Monday, two weeks after he said the UK was past the peak of coronavirus cases.

Dr Selena Langdon said she does not believe now is the right time to be lifting any lockdown measures.

"When the Prime Minister makes his speech it is important he is transparent and honest about what outline the government has through this next phase," she said, "if they are going to even be remotely thinking about lifting restrictions too soon then we are really going to see a very detrimental effect from that."

The doctor accepted that while people are feeling "lockdown fatigue" we have to look at the "bigger picture" which is that the UK has the highest death toll in Europe and the second highest death toll in the world.

"If we give the wrong message...there's going to be a huge impact and there will be more people that will die. It's just not the right time...it's too early to be lifting lockdown," she said.

Dr Langdon called the government's message "very" confusing: "It just looks like they're suggesting that on Monday we're going to be seeing changes take place. I think that's going to give people too much confidence that they can go back to activities that could risk spreading the disease very easily."

If it is lifted too early, she said, there will be a second peak which will then prolong lockdown and in turn affect the economy as well as public health.

LBC's Darren Adam pointed out that to obey the lockdown and stay inside, that will shorten the length of the lockdown.

Dr Langdon agreed and said that while the lockdown measures are not perfect, "it is working."

"If we carry on as we are we stand a chance of getting through this without there being a huge amount of collateral damage which we are already seeing," she said.