Readers have been responding to the announcement made by the Prime Minister that coronavirus lockdown restrictions will not be lifted on June 21 as previously claimed, but will instead be delayed for another four weeks.

The announcement comes after a new variant, the Delta variant, has increased dangers to public health, and the virus is now less manageable.

The Prime Minister appealed to the public to show patience, with one last push to ensure that when controls do finally end it is “irreversible”.

He is thought to have spent the evening of June 13 going through the latest data with the senior ministers and officials most closely involved in the process.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove were reported to have been briefed by chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty and the chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.

Latest daily government figures from June 13 showed another rise in Covid infections, with a further 7,490 lab-confirmed cases in the UK.

Rising infections in the UK are being driven by the Delta variant, first identified in India, which now accounts for 90 per cent of infections.

In England, there were a total of 35,971 positive Covid tests in the past seven days at a rate of 63.9 per 100,000 people.

The decision will be reviewed after two weeks.

However, the potential delay to the easing of restrictions has provoked a mixed response.

Here is what you had to say.

Colin Wales thinks the decision was the right one to make: “He doesn’t have a choice in this.

“True as it is there will be less hospital admissions but that’s not the problem.

“The problem arises because many of the younger generation will catch it and some of them will suffer Long Covid and so will be unable to work.

“We could end up with a 30,000 or so of the younger generation who we will have to support throughout their adult life and that will be a massive strain on the economy for decades to come.”

John Nichol thinks that the lockdown extension is wishful thinking: “Absolutely ludicrous if Boris thinks he is going to solve this variant over 28 days.

“He really needs to give his head a wobble.

“It’s an illness get on with it the variant nots going anywhere it’s with us for life.”

Ian Scott sees inconsistency: “You can’t go freely about, yet thousands are allowed at a football match.”