THE long-awaited ‘Freedom Day’ will go ahead on July 19 despite top doctors warning against it.
It is full steam ahead for the lifting of lockdown restrictions later this month, but Downing Street has admitted there will be “difficult days” ahead.
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All legal Covid measures are due to end on July 19 – with face masks and social distancing mandates scrapped and mass events permitted.
Quarantine for fully vaccinated travellers returning to the UK from abroad will also be ditched, as will the school bubble system.
Boris Johnson is expected to confirm the move, with No 10 sources saying the PM trusts “the innate good sense of the British people” not to act “recklessly”, the Daily Mail reports.
But the great unlocking is likely to prompt a significant surge in already rising cases.
Experts have warned infections could reach a peak of 100,000 a day.
Carl Theodore Bergstrom, a biologist at the University of Washington, said there was a risk that a large wave of infection could “overshoot” herd immunity – prolonging the pandemic until autumn.
The worrying figure echoes calls from other top scientists urging Boris to rethink ripping up the Covid rule book on July 19.
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard said throwing away all coronavirus precautions on ‘Freedom Day’ is alarming and will “add fuel to the fire” as Britain is already battling a “dangerous wave”.
The chairwoman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I have been profoundly concerned for a week or two since talk of July 19 is ramping up.
“There seems to be a misapprehension that life will return to normal from then, and that we can throw away all the precautions, and frankly, that would be dangerous.
“The rising number of cases, the rising number of people requiring hospital treatment and intensive care, and sadly the number of deaths are beginning to rise again too.
“We all want to make sure that the public is aware that this pandemic is far from over. And that when the 19th comes we need a responsible approach and a very cautious approach to relaxing restrictions.
“We’ve heard some pretty alarming reports of companies saying ‘all restrictions are removed, everyone back in the office, sitting close to each other, no masks indoors.
‘FUEL TO THE FIRE’
“And I do feel that is going to add fuel to the fire of this current quite dangerous wave that we’re in.”
She added: “The previous waves were high pressured in a different way.
“What we’ve got at the moment is we’re dealing with the backlog that’s built up over the last 15 months.
“We all know the record number of people waiting for operations and for investigations.
“And also we’re seeing a sudden spike in the number of young children requiring hospital attention and people having infections that they didn’t have before.”
Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling Government advisory panel, also agreed that “there is a risk” with the planned July 19 reopening.
He told Times Radio the UK is living in a “bit of an experiment” in relation to lifting most restrictions.
The latest figures show UK Covid hospital admissions have surged by 50 per cent in a week, with 565 new patients in the last 24 hours.
Coronavirus cases have risen by 32,367 in the last day, bringing the total number of infections since the pandemic began to 5,089,893.
And 34 more fatalities were reported today, making the grim total 128,339.
This means that there has been a 30 per cent rise in cases – and a 62 per cent rise in deaths – in the last seven days.
However, a whopping 80,327,679 Covid jabs have been administered so far, of which 45,786,550 were first doses – a rise of 88,675 on the previous day.
Some 34,541,129 were second doses – an increase of 166,883.
