BORIS Johnson’s plans to ease lockdown in England mean a rise in coronavirus cases is “inevitable”, a leading scientist has warned.
Professor Devi Sridhar of Edinburgh University, a member of the Scottish Government's Covid-19 advisory group, said the country’s best hope of avoiding a spike was the good weather.
Her comments came after England's deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said the easing of restrictions created a "very dangerous moment" in the fight against Covid-19.
Warning of a second wave, public health expert Sridhar told Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme: "I am very sorry to say I think it is right now inevitable, looking at the numbers. The only thing that might save England is the good weather, and the warmth if this virus does indeed die outside quite quickly.
"But it is incredibly worrying, because the numbers are not low enough to have a testing and tracing system take over."
READ MORE: Daily briefing: England's deputy CMO makes views on Cummings clear
Boris Johnson announced last week that from Monday in England, friends and family can meet in parks and gardens in socially distanced groups of six, while some youngsters will also return to school.
In addition, more than two million clinically extremely vulnerable people in England who have been shielding since March will be allowed to spend time with other people outdoors.
Sridhar said schools, which are due to reopen to more pupils in England from Monday, need to be considered in a similar way to hospitals and care homes in terms of testing going forward so that outbreaks can be quickly monitored and caught.
"What we want to be having is actually testing in schools," she said.
"We need to be treating schools like how we've been treating hospitals and care homes. These are institutions that need to be monitored and teachers need to be tested, older students need to be tested. We don't have yet those, you know, monitoring systems in place."
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon: Scotland will take slow and steady route out of lockdown
The professor took to Twitter to speculate why England’s infection rate remains so high.
She tweeted: “My hypotheses: 1. Lockdown not strict enough & self-isolation not adhered to. Even 1 symptomatic person can start a chain that infects 59K people within 10 cycles.
“2. No border control so steady incoming stream.”
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