The Prime Minister is hosting cabinet this morning one day after the birth of his son, where his team will discuss how to manage the lockdown.
He is then expected to rule out any relaxing of the measures and urge Brits to stick with it when he returns to the Downing Street press conferences later today.
Speaking last night, the SNP leader suggested no changes were incoming.
She said: “People talk about lifting the lockdown, that is not going to be a flick of the switch moment – we’re going to have to be very careful, very slow, very gradual.
“I’m far from convinced at this stage that when we get to the next review point on the 7th of May we’ll be in a position to lift any of these measures right now, because the margins of manoeuvre that we’re operating in right now are very, very, very tight and narrow.”
On eight separate days this month more than 1,000 people died of the virus.
Mr Johnson will use today’s conference to warn that while infection rates are falling well, the government’s top scientists have warned him that easing up on the restrictions now is still very high risk.
A senior No10 source said: “He’ll talk about the progress we’ve made so far in slowing the spread of the virus, and how we won’t do anything that might risk a return to exponential growth”.
Mr Johnson’s first public grilling since his return to No10 has been designed to set the scene ahead of the lockdown’s next three week review point on May 7.
Allies say Boris is desperate to dampen down expectations among some Tory MPs and party donors for major changes, instead opting for a “caution first” approach – especially while the lockdown is still widely supported by the public.
While more Brits are urged to return to work if it is safe, and households could be given the opportunity to socialise with one other household group, it is now expected that much of the nation’s virtual house arrest will remain in place in May.
