THE coronavirus lockdown will be extended for another three weeks, the Government is expected to announce as the Health Secretary said it will take time for life to return to normal.

Ministers are meeting this morning (April 16) to agree to prolong the social distancing controls announced on March 23, amid signs the epidemic in the UK is beginning to peak.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Thursday he agreed that things will not go back to how they were, at least in the short term.

He stressed the number of deaths is still “far too high” for any exit strategy to be set out, adding the public must instead focus on staying at home.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Hancock said that how ministers communicate with the public has a “direct impact” on the number of cases and deaths, which are “still far too high”.

He said the message remains to stay at home and protect the NHS.

“The communications are part of the policy and that is why we will not be distracted into confusing that message,” he said.

“The scientists can say what they like, the commentators can say what they like, the interviewers can say what they like. We will do what is best by dealing with this virus.”

He said the aim is to “talk about what is needed now and when we need to change that, we will”.

It came after Professor Neil Ferguson from Imperial College London, who is advising ministers, said “significant” social distancing will most likely be needed until there is a vaccine.

He told the Today programme that as restrictions are eased, more testing will be needed to isolate individual cases and trace their contacts to keep future outbreaks under control.

“Because without that, our estimates show we have relatively little leeway,” he said.

“If we relax measures too much then we’ll see a resurgence of transmission.

“What we really need is the ability to put something in their place. If we want to open schools, let people get back to work, then we need to keep transmission down in another manner.

“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.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said his party will back an extension to the lockdown, but has called on ministers to set out an exit strategy explaining how restrictions will eventually be lifted.

The Cabinet meeting on Thursday comes after the number of people who have died in hospital after testing positive for Covid-19 reached almost 13,000, with growing concern over increasing deaths in care homes.

Elsewhere, a leaked letter written on Saturday to a senior official at the Department of Health and Social Care by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass) says mixed messages from the Government have created “confusion and additional workload”.