It is 'inevitable' that England will now suffer a rise in cases.
Devi Sridhar, professor of global public health at Edinburgh University, said England will now most likely see increased numbers of infections as the lockdown is eased.
Speaking on Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday, she said: "I'm very sorry to say that I think it is right now inevitable looking at the numbers.
To receive one WhatsApp message a day with Edinburgh Live's headlines, as well as breaking news alerts, text NEWS to 07899067815. Then add the number to your contacts as 'Edinburgh Live'.
"The only thing that might in a sense save England is the good weather and warmth if this virus does indeed die outside quite quickly, but it's incredibly worrying because the numbers are not low enough to have a testing and tracing system take over."
She said schools, which are due to reopen to more pupils 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."
