BORIS Johnson pushing ahead with a full re-opening from Covid restrictions in England has been described as "foolish" and a "major risk" by a behaviour expert.

There have been reports today that there could be a two-week delay to the June 21 date that the UK Government had set for a full re-opening from restrictions amid a surge in Covid cases driven by the Delta Covid variant first discovered in India.

Stephen Reicher, Bishop Wardlaw professor of social psychology at the University of St Andrews, has said that there is now enough evidence to say that the new variant's spread the Government’s four key tests for its road map out of lockdown has not been met.

Reports suggest that what was being described as "freedom day" in England could be scaled back with social distancing and mask-wearing to remain.

READ MORE: England's June 21 Covid-19 'freedom day' to be delayed, reports say

Prof Reicher, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (Spi-B) which advises the Government, said the criteria about the current assessment of the risks not being fundamentally changed by new variants of concern is “not upheld”.

He said: “I think by the Government’s own criteria it’s quite clear that it would be foolish to proceed on the data that we’ve got at the moment. The risk would be very great indeed.

“And of course it’s a balance of risks but I think it would be a major risk to go further in opening up.”

He added: “Again, I make the point that it is about data not dates, and if you make it too much about the dates then you box yourself into a corner and I think that’s what the Government has done.”

A UK Government spokesperson said “no decision” had been made on whether to ease all coronavirus restrictions on June 21.

“As the Prime Minister has set out, we can see nothing in the data at the moment to suggest that we need to deviate from the roadmap,” said the spokesperson.

“We continue to look at the data and the latest scientific evidence and no decision on Step 4 has yet been made.”

The Four Key Tests

The UK Government's four tests that have been set to ensure it is safe to move out of Covid restrictions are:

  • The vaccine deployment programme continues successfully
  • Evidence shows vaccines are sufficiently effective in reducing hospitalisations and deaths in those vaccinated
  • Infection rates do not risk a surge in hospitalisations which would put unsustainable pressure on the NHS
  • Our assessment of the risks is not fundamentally changed by new Variants of Concern

The Delta variant of the coronavirus has been identified as a Variant of Concern and understood to be driving a surge in new cases across the UK.

READ MORE: Scotland sees one new Covid death and 860 fresh cases in 24 hours

On Friday there were 6238 new Covid cases recorded in the UK (922 in Scotland), the highest number recorded in a day since late March. Today's figure dropped slightly to 5765 (860 in Scotland).

A report in the Telegraph said that a two-week delay to the final stage of Johnson's road map out of lockdown will be used to accelerate second vaccines for over-40s, moving from a 12 to an eight-week gap between doses, echoing the practice that is already in place for over-50s.

Those aged over 25 will also be offered their first doses from next week, the newspaper said.

It comes as laboratory data from the Francis Crick Institute backed up a policy of reducing the gap between jabs.

The study found that after just one dose of the Pfizer jab, people are less likely to develop antibody levels against the Indian (B.1.617.2) variant as high as those seen against the previously dominant Kent variant, which has been dubbed Alpha.