Chairman of the Commons Health Select Committee Jeremy Hunt, a former Conservative Health Secretary, has warned that the UK could go back into lockdown.
Mr Hunt has urged caution around “using the language of irreversibility” when lifting coronavirus restrictions because there is still a high number of infections each day worldwide.
The former health secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “At the moment, the projections are that the deaths from Covid will actually be less than some of our worst years for flu.
“When you have that kind of change, I think it’s reasonable to change the social contract to one of co-operation, rather than compulsion.
“But I think we have got to be careful about using the language of irreversibility, because we still have 350,000 new infections every day across the world, there is still room for the vaccine-busting variants that we are all worried about.
“So we have to be on our guard and recognise that things may sadly yet change.”
On Monday Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the plan is to lift almost all Covid restrictions on July 19.
The move, which will include scrapping masks, will be confirmed on July 12.
