Immunity certificates issued to people who have recovered from coronavirus would be "dangerous" and unnecessary, a health expert has said.
English Health Secretary Matt Hancock told a press conference on Thursday that the UK Government was considering handing out the documents to allow people to "get back, as much as possible, to normal life".
But Eleanor Riley, Professor of Immunology and Infectious Disease at the University of Edinburgh, said that such certificates would give people a "sense of false security" about the disease.
"It's not something that we've ever done before. When we vaccinate people, particularly for certain diseases where they're going to travel overseas... we give people a certificate saying they have been vaccinated," she said.
"But that certificate doesn't say they are immune and there's a difference. We don't know yet whether somebody who has had this virus is immune.
"They have antibodies, they've clearly been exposed, yet will those antibodies protect them against reinfection? I'm not sure that we know that.
"So to give a certificate saying somebody is immune, I think is actually quite dangerous because: A) we don't know if it's true and B) it could give people a slight sense of false security, where they start to do things that they wouldn't otherwise do.
"For the general public, saying you're immune they will think 'oh OK, I don't need to worry anymore' - and there will be people who will die as a result of that.
"I think it's very risky and I don't think it's necessary."
Latest data shows 2,921 people have died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK, as of 5pm on Wednesday.
The total is up by 569 from 2,352 the day before and is the biggest day-on-day increase so far, just above the 563 reported on Wednesday.
The Department of Health in England said it could not currently provide further information on the plan to issue certificates as it was "too early in the science of immunity".
"As the technology develops and becomes clearer we will be able to update," a spokesperson said.
Prof Riley added that the exact purpose of immunity certificates was unclear for the general public.
"Who needs a certificate that says they're immune to coronavirus? What are you going to use it for?" she said.
"For health service workers in the very particular instance of 'are you safe to go back to work?' it might be useful.
"For anybody else I really don't see the benefit of it - A, at an individual level it's not informative and B, if people think they are immune they will start to take risks and any attempt at social distancing will start to break down."
