Coronavirus is the biggest challenge the UK has faced in decades but thanks to the hard work, resilience and sacrifice of the British people, and despite a tragic loss of life, the UK has slowed the spread of coronavirus. The death rate and hospital admissions are coming down, and we have protected the NHS and saved many thousands of lives.

We must not relent now – or else there is a very real risk of a second peak of the disease that could overwhelm the NHS and throw away all of our achievements to date.

The Government has set out a new alert system, which will tell us how tough social distancing measures need to be, and which will guide our progress along a roadmap – a three-step plan to start our recovery and rebuild our way of life.

The new COVID Alert System will char our progress in tackling the virus and avoid us from going back to square one. It will be determined primarily by the R Value and the number of COVID-19 cases. We have also established a new Joint Biosecurity Centre to monitor and advise on the COVID Alert Level. 

As the UK moves down the COVID Alert Levels, we will be able to move further along the 3-step roadmap explained below to re-open society. Our COVID Alert Level is currently between 3 and 4.