UK DEATH TOLL UP 596 TODAY AS REAL TOTAL INCLUDING NUMBERS OUTSIDE HOSPITALS 'MORE THAN 20,000'

CORONAVIRUS lockdown cannot be relaxed too soon to save the economy if it means risking more deaths, Atherstone's most experienced MP in parliamentary history believes.

Former Labour Solicitor-General Mike O'Brien has cautioned against an argument that it is a contest between "saving lives and saving jobs" as renewed speculation intensifies over when the Government will release the stranglehold on restrictions across the UK.

Mr O'Brien, who held five senior and two junior ministerial positions in an 18-year-career at Westminster, also said it is too early to be talking of sending Years 10 and 12 pupils back into schools as they are meant to be sitting GCSEs and A-levels next year.

His comments – backed by local forum followers "for the time being" – came as the hospital death toll increased by 596 today and new data from the National Care Forum suggests more than 20,000 people in the UK have lost their lives to virus since the outbreak began.

The official hospital death tally for the UK now stands at 16,060 but the NCF, which represents not-for-profit care providers, found there has been 4,040 coronavirus-related deaths among the elderly and disabled in care homes which are not yet been included in official figures.

Confirmed cases in the UK rose by 5,850 to 120,067.

The 65-year-old North Warwickshire political heavyweight said: "The Covid-19 lockdown will cause job losses, companies going bust and real pain, but it will also saves lives.

"The dichotomy between saving lives and saving the economy is a false one.

"The faster and tougher we squeeze out the virus by a lockdown now, the faster the economy will be able to reopen and the less expensive it will be in the long term."

UK ministers have reportedly drawn up 'traffic-light' plans to ease the coronavirus lockdown and as part of that are looking to send children back into school. It is understood the pupils of different age groups will be taught for only part of the week or every other week to follow social distancing guidelines.

The proposals saw a May 11 dateline for a red-phase partial lifting of restrictions, permitting the reopening of small, non-essential shops, warehouse, hairdressers and nurseries – with April to June being "like Christmas" in commercial terms for the UK's 2,000 garden centres.

An amber phase on May 25 would extend freedoms with small businesses up to 50 employees starting up again, schools reopening and restaurants as well but with social distancing still in place.

Green-for-go on June 15 included cinemas, theatres, sports venues, pubs, gyms and fitness centres getting the thumbs up to open their doors plus weddings and funerals taking place with larger groups.

But today Michael Gove denied the strategy on Sky News's Sophy Ridge On Sunday, but added: "It is the case that we are looking at all of the evidence, but we have set some tests which need to be passed before we can think of easing restrictions in this lockdown."

Mr O'Brien, who held full ministerial portfolios of Health Services, Trade, Trade and Industry, Energy and Pensions as well as junior roles for foreign affairs and immigration, added: " I am glad ministers have denied this story.

"Ministers are rightly pleased that the virus reproduction rate, known as 'R', is "below one", but reopening schools early will increase contact and increase the R rate.

"That would mean more deaths. Caution is needed now.

"Chancellor Rishi Sunak is right to say the economy will steam back, but only after we defeat Covid-19. End lockdown too soon and deaths will follow."

His sentiments were shared online by Ian Pear who posted: "We shouldn't even be thinking of putting a date on this at the moment.

"Keep the lockdown on till we can be as sure as we can be that it has worked."

Tracey White added on Atherstone People's Forum: "It's certainly too early to contemplate lifting the restrictions in the next three weeks and certainly while we have thousands of patients in hospital suffering from Covid-19.

"But people around the world are already struggling financially and emotionally.

"Businesses are already folding after just a few weeks.

"People can't survive on no salaries and many are not getting a penny from anywhere else as there not entitled to any benefits.

"We're not going to be clear of this even in a few months. I reckon there are going to be reinfections into next year."

More than half of the jobs in some sectors of the UK economy are said to be at risk if the lockdown continues for an extended period, according to a new study by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex.

It suggests the lockdown threatens to temporarily take at least 6.5 million jobs out of the economy – around a fifth of the national total.

The Office for Budget Responsibility has already said that based on an assumption that the current lockdown would last for three months the UK stood to see a 35 per cent drop in growth by June.

There more bad news on the personal protection equipment front as the 84 tonnes – including 400,000 gowns – promised for NHS frontline staff today via delivery from Turkey failed to materialise.

It is not yet known what has caused the delay.

The world must live with the threat of Covid-19 "for the foreseeable future" as there is no guarantee of a successful vaccine, an expert on the disease has reportedly said.

David Nabarro, professor of global health at Imperial College London and an envoy for the World Health Organisation on Covid-19, said people around the globe will have to adapt to the ongoing threat of coronavirus.

He added: "So for the foreseeable future, we are going to have to find ways to go about our lives with this virus as a constant threat.

"That means isolating those who show signs of the disease and also their contacts. Older people will have to be protected."