BRITAIN’S lockdown is to last for “at least” three more weeks until May 7 as the public was warned that lifting the restrictions now could lead to a second, more lethal, wave of the coronavirus.

Nicola Sturgeon urged the Scottish people to hold onto the "fundamental and enduring principles of love, kindness and solidarity" during the continued lockdown while continuing to adhere to the social distancing guidance.

"If we were to lift any of these measures now, we would risk an immediate and potentially exponential resurgence of the virus and that could result in our NHS being quickly overwhelmed,” warned the First Minister.

She said a second wave would mean a “much more loss of life,” worse damage to the economy and the need for even more stringent measures; all the progress made thus far would be lost.

“Please stick with the rules. Please stay at home to save lives," Ms Sturgeon added.

Her comments came as the number of confirmed coronavirus case in the UK reached 103,093, including 7,102 in Scotland.

New figures showed the death toll among Covid-19 hospital patients rose across the UK by 861 to 13,729. In Scotland, the death toll increased by 80 to reach 779.

At the daily Downing St press briefing, Dominic Raab – standing in for Boris Johnson as he continues to recuperate – said that while the lockdown measures undertaken had slowed the spread of the virus, “overall, we still don't have the infection rate down as far as we need to".

The Foreign Secretary stressed there remained "issues with the virus spreading in some hospitals and in care homes".

He too warned: "The very clear advice we received is that any change to our social distancing measures now would risk a significant increase in the spread of the virus. That would threaten a second peak of the virus and substantially increase the number of deaths.”

Mr Raab refused to set out a "definitive timeframe" for easing the lockdown measures, stressing that would prejudge the data over the coming days, and that lifting them now would only lead to a "second lockdown".

Pointing to the decision made earlier at the emergency Cobra meeting, attended by Ms Sturgeon, he said: "Based on the advice, which we have very carefully considered, the Government has decided the current measures must remain in place for at least the next three weeks."

But the Foreign Secretary sought to reassure the public, saying: “There is light at the end of tunnel, we are making progress, but at the same time we must keep up the social distancing measures."

He urged people to be patient and added: “If we rush to relax the measures that we have in place, we would risk wasting all the sacrifices and all the progress that has been made.”

Mr Raab set out five preconditions before any change to the current measures could be made. These are:

*protection of the NHS's ability to cope and confidence it is able to provide sufficient critical care across the UK;

*a sustained and consistent fall in daily death rates to be confident the UK is beyond the peak;

*reliable data from the medical and scientific experts of SAGE, showing the rate of infection is decreasing to manageable levels across the board;

*confidence that testing capacity and Personal Protective Equipment are in hand with the supply able to meet future the demand and

*confidence that any adjustments to the current measures would not risk a second peak in infections which would overwhelm the NHS.

Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, explained that it was now “highly likely” that the strength of the infection, known as R, was below one, meaning one person would, on average, be infecting fewer than one other person.

"That's an important change. It means in the community it's likely that the virus and the epidemic is now shrinking," declared Sir Patrick.

He said that getting the transmission rate down was essential but so too was reducing the number of infected cases. “Once we are at that stage, then you can start to think about which of the measures that make most sense to release in order to not have growth and put the R above one.

“In doing so, the aim there is to try and do that in a way which allows everything to start moving more towards normal…”

While Mr Raab declined to be drawn on what the first steps to easing restrictions might look like, other countries across Europe have begun to reopen schools and nurseries, some small shops and allowed some people to return their workplaces.

There has also been a suggestion that certain sections of society, such as people under 30, who are less prone to catch the virus, could be unlocked from the restrictions first.

Sir Keir Starmer said he fully supported the lockdown extension, saying: “The priority now must be to ensure we see a ramp-up in testing, that staff get the PPE they desperately need and more is done to protect our care homes from the virus.

"We also need clarity about what plans are being put in place to lift the lockdown when the time is right."

Sir Ed Davey for the Liberal Democrats said: "It is absolutely right that we continue to do everything we can to reduce the transmission of this virus. That means accepting the necessity for the lockdown measures to remain in place. Nothing could be more important right now.

"However, if ministers are asking people to stay at home, people are right to be asking ministers to get a grip on the crisis."

Meanwhile, at the press briefing Mr Raab sent a clear warning to China that it could not be business as usual once life returned to a semblance of normality.

“There absolutely needs to be a very, very deep dive after the event review of the lessons, including of the outbreak of the virus. I don’t think we can flinch from that at all, it needs to be driven by the science.”

He said the UK had good co-operation with China in relation to the return of UK nationals and in procurement of equipment and that the review would need to be done in a “balanced way”.

However, the Secretary of State added: “There is no doubt we can’t have business as usual after this crisis. We will have to ask the hard questions about how it came about and how it couldn’t have been stopped earlier.”

The Covid-19 outbreak began in Wuhan around the turn of the year and then spread rapidly across the globe. More than 100,000 people have since died with the disease worldwide.

Earlier, Matt Hancock, the UK Health Secretary, warned it would take time for life to return to normal as a Government scientific adviser questioned whether ministers had done enough work on an exit strategy.

Professor Neil Ferguson from Imperial College London said: "There's a lot of discussion. I would like to see action accelerated. We need to put in place an infrastructure, a command and control structure, a novel organisation for this."

The epidemiologist called for more co-ordination, stressing: "We have limited leeway to release current measures unless we have something new to put in their place."

He said before restrictions were eased, more testing would be needed to isolate individual cases and trace their contacts to keep future outbreaks under control.

"And I should say, it's not going to be going back to normal. We will have to maintain some form of social distancing, a significant level of social distancing, probably indefinitely until we have a vaccine available," added Prof Ferguson.

In a separate development, Downing Street confirmed a review will take place into why people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds appeared to be disproportionately affected by coronavirus.