Scientific experts have warned this coming weekend could be the biggest test for the government's Covid strategy as more than a 1.7 million people will attend mass events.
Following Freedom Day on July 19, all legal restrictions on social contact effectively came to an end after 18 painstaking months.
The fourth step of the government's roadmap to ending lockdown meant people are now free to return to their favourite events as the hospitality and entertainment sector reopened completely.
But experts have blasted the government for waiting till October 1 to make Covid pass checks compulsory for venues.
The government has so far said proof of a double vaccination or a recent negative test, which can be obtained through the NHS, is likely to become compulsory for "high risk" events as of October 1.
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Till then, businesses are currently allowed to ask customers to prove their Covid status to enter a venue on a voluntary basis.
The UK is now set for one of its busiest weekends since restrictions were lifted as England’s Premier League starts again, with games expected to attract almost 400,000 football fans, without counting all those cheering at pubs and bars.
With a national survey revealing one in every 75 people in England are catching the virus, Public Health England advised fans to arrive early, avoid large crowds and wear masks in enclosed spaces.
Many clubs including Manchester United and Arsenal have warned fans that stewards will be conducting spot checks and they may need to provide proof of vaccination or a recent negative lateral flow test.
Chelsea are the first club to say they will require this from every fan attending their Stamford Bridge stadium prior to entry.
This weekend will also see England face India for a tense cricket game at Lord's, while the Edinburgh Fringe, the world's largest arts festival, is also set for tens of thousands.
The event, which was last year cancelled due to Covid, has been reduced in size and will feature 700 shows, with a third of them being virtual.
Professor Graham Medley, of the Government’s pandemic modelling group Spi-m and member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), told The i the next few days will put the government's strategy under scrutiny.
“Every weekend over the next few months is going to be seen as a test, and it is,” said Prof Medley.
“Personally, I expect that incidence of infection will start to increase.”
Dr Zubaida Haque, a member of alternative Sage, slammed the government for playing "fast and loose" with the vaccine rollout as she warned the upcoming mass events could give way to a new vaccine-resistant strain.
“It beggars belief that the government are playing Russian roulette with our lives” said Dr Haque.
“We were doing absolutely nothing to protect our vaccination programme, and this disregard for people’s health only increase the chances of a new strain emerging that is resistant to the vaccines.”
Random swab testing data published on Friday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) did, however, appear to confirm the July 19 easing did not result in a surge in cases.
The ONS Infection Survey for the week ending August 6 showed rates at one in 75 people testing positive had remained the same as the previous week.
This was one in 220 in Wales, one in 190 in Scotland but higher at one in 55 in Northern Ireland.
ONS statistician Sarah Crofts said: “While infection rates remain high in England as a whole the most recent data show decreases in the North, the West Midlands and in London.
“In Yorkshire and the Humber, however, the number of people testing positive has gone up and elsewhere in England the trend is uncertain.
“In other parts of the UK the picture is also mixed. It’s encouraging to see the trend continuing to decrease in Scotland but Northern Ireland remains high and in Wales the trend is also uncertain.
“It is still too early to say whether we have seen the peak of the current wave.
“We will continue to monitor very closely the data collected from the many thousands of households participating in our survey.”
