Over 70s facing a year indoors under coronavirus lockdown

The over 70s could be forced to stay at home for another year if the ‘traffic-light’ system of returning the UK to post-coronavirus life is carried out.

Under reported plans to lift the lockdown, people judged to be within the vulnerable group in a green, amber, red system could remain shielded from normal life for up to 18 months, or until a vaccine is found.

An ‘insider’ quoted in the Sun said: ‘It’s going to be a slow path back. But just because we aren’t talking about it doesn’t mean we aren’t thinking about it.’

Even when life returns to a semblance of normality under a ‘green light’ phase, there will still be measures in place to avoid infection, according to the report.

If the plan, which has been denied by figures within Government, is accurate the first baby-steps towards lifting the lockdown could begin around May 11.

Michael Gove spent the morning on television denying reports that the government was ready to adopt the measures.

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When asked about a traffic light system, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster said they were ‘looking at all of the evidence’, adding: ‘We’ve set some tests which need to be passed before we can think of easing restrictions in this lockdown.

‘We’re looking at the data, it is the case that the rate of infection appears to be flattening, but we do not want to take steps too early because the most important thing is to make sure that the NHS and the public’s health is protected.’

He added added that it was ‘entirely understandable’ people wanted to know when lockdown could end but that it was still too early to tell.

Lockdown was extended by a further three weeks until May 7 by Dominic Raab, standing in for a sick Boris Johnson on Thursday.

On Friday, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the country would likely move towards remote working and staggered shifts even once measures are lifted. 

He told BBC’s Today programme: ‘The world probably will not go back to how it was before in a whole manner of different ways. 

‘It may well be in the future that companies say, “it’s actually worked very well having some of our staff work from remote locations, why don’t we carry on doing that?’

For the rest of the UK, a reported amber phase, speculated for May 25, would herald in a great unlocking of economic activity, likely followed – assuming there isn’t another surge in infections, by mid-June to a shift to green.

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