The UK is facing its fourth week in lockdown, with the government set to review by Thursday whether social distancing measures can be changed.
Ministers are required by law to assess whether the rules are working, based on expert advice, after three weeks of telling Britons to stay at home.
It comes as an NHS boss has warned staff are facing a “hand-to-mouth” supply of protective gowns.
Meanwhile, the PM has thanked NHS staff after being discharged from hospital.
The mother of a nurse who Boris Johnson specifically praised said she was “exceptionally proud” of her daughter.
Wales’ health minister said last week that the coronavirus lockdown would remain for “several more weeks at the very least”.
And Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon warned there was “no likelihood or prospect” of measures being lifted after the Easter weekend.
On Sunday, the UK’s total number of hospital deaths linked to coronavirus reached 10,612.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers in England which represents hospital trusts, told BBC Breakfast that the number of protective gowns – imported from China – available to NHS staff in some parts of the country has fallen “critically low” in recent days.
Mr Hopson said that the NHS ordered “a whole load of stock” weeks ago, but delays have been caused by the gowns sometimes failing safety tests, while other batches have been mislabelled – meaning the NHS has ended up with additional masks.
He added: “If everything had been flowing exactly as had been ordered and if all of the material had properly passed its safety test, there would not be an issue.
“This is all really hand-to-mouth in terms of gown delivery, and we need to get to a more sustainable supply.”
Mr Johnson had spent a week at St Thomas’ Hospital in London – including three nights in intensive care – where he was being treated for Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
It is unclear whether the prime minister – who is now recuperating at Chequers, his country home in Buckinghamshire – will take part in the lockdown review.
In a video message to the nation recorded after he left hospital, 55-year-old Mr Johnson said it “could have gone either way” as he thanked NHS staff for saving his life.
Image copyrightJENNY MCGEEHe singled out two nurses – Jenny McGee from New Zealand and Luis Pitarma from Portugal – for caring for him at his bedside for 48 hours at the most critical time.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is currently in charge of running the government, with aides reportedly expecting Mr Johnson to be out of action for as long as a month.
Asked how long it would be before Mr Johnson returned to work, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it would be a “clinical decision for his doctors to take with him”.
Speaking at the Downing Street briefing on Sunday, Mr Hancock insisted the government is “operating perfectly efficiently within the strategy that he set out.”
Exit strategy
Labour shadow cabinet minister Rachel Reeves said her party is calling on the government to publish its exit strategy for ending the lockdown.
Under the current rules, people are urged to stay at home and to only go out if they have a “reasonable excuse”, which includes exercise, shopping for basic necessities, healthcare and essential travel to or from work.
Ms Reeves suggested ways of easing restrictions could include rolling out mass testing, shielding the most vulnerable while others get back to normal life and lifting the restrictions temporarily but reintroducing them if the virus starts to spread again.
“Although it’s not the moment now to end the lockdown we need to think about where we are going to be in two, three, four weeks’ time and now start looking at that plan,” she told BBC Breakfast.
Speaking ahead of the Easter Bank holiday weekend, Mr Raab said it was still “too early” to lift lockdown restrictions, insisting they would need to stay in place until evidence showed the UK had moved beyond the peak of the virus.
But ministers may also have to consider any economic fallout of the lockdown measures, with a report by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) think-tank suggesting 25% of the UK economy could be lost by the summer due to the current controls in place.
Business Secretary Alok Sharma, when asked about the NIESR report, told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show there would “no doubt” be economic repercussions following the lockdown measures.
The BBC’s political correspondent Ben Wright said it is expected that social distancing measures will be continued, but he added that “ministers are having to weigh up their responsibility to fight the disease with protecting the economy”.