UK ‘faces 100,000 Covid cases every day if lockdown is lifted on June 21’

The government has been warned not to ease restrictions next week.

Covid infections could top 100,000 a day if the June 21 lockdown easing goes ahead, according to a member of Independent SAGE.

Professor Anthony Costello, from University College London, warned new cases were probably double the 8,000 being reported, which would only worsen if the country opened up in a week.

Cases of the Indian variant – now known as Delta – went up to 42,323 in the UK last week, an increase of 29,892.

Coronavirus infections are currently doubling every nine days.

Prof Costello told the Mirror: ‘In a month you’ll be up to 100,000 new cases a day.

‘If the Government takes a gamble and lets rip like Tory backbenchers want, the NHS will be overloaded. Let’s wait. Let’s stay as we are.’

The increase in infections could lead to hospitalisations reaching 2,000 a day but the vaccine rollout has led to fewer people being hospitalised with the virus. 

A delay to ‘Freedom Day’ could allow more people to be fully vaccinated, which offers better defence against the Delta strain. 

One shot of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca jabs offers just 33% protection against the variant, which is 60% more transmissible.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson indicated that he is set to announce a four-week delay for lifting restrictions, calling the spread of the Delta variant a matter of ‘serious, serious concern’

Any delay will come as a bitter blow to many businesses, particularly in the hospitality and leisure sectors, which had been pinning their hopes on a full summer reopening to help recoup some of the past year’s losses.

The delay could cost the live music industry more than £500 million, new research has suggested.

The LIVE trade body said its research shows there are 5,000 shows that would be cancelled if such a delay occurs.

Prominent epidemiologist Professor Sian Griffiths joined calls for the Government to postpone its planned lifting of coronavirus restrictions on June 21 to preserve the country’s progress in battling the pandemic.

She said the recent rise in Covid cases in the UK has changed the landscape on reopening.

‘The public health advice would be to take it slowly and in a sustained way so we can keep up the progress we’ve been making,” Prof Griffiths, an associate director of Public Health England,  told BBC TV.

‘It does depend on the balance. It’s a political decision at the end of the day, what happens on the 21st of June, but, from a public health point of view, we’re seeing the cases increase, we’re seeing a slight increase in hospitalisation in areas where there are a lot of cases, and the vaccination does work, but we need to get second doses into everybody over 50, and expand the vaccination programme to keep everybody safe.

‘I think waiting a little bit longer to sustain the progress is necessary, but it may not be an all-or-nothing Freedom Day.’

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