The prospect of people jetting off on holidays abroad this summer is "extremely unlikely", a scientist advising the government on coronavirus has warned.
Dr Mike Tildesley said there was a danger that holidaymakers travelling to other countries could bring back new variants of the virus which could be less susceptible to vaccines.
The Spi-M modelling group member told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “I think that international travel this summer is, for the average holidaymaker, sadly I think, extremely unlikely.
“I think we are running a real risk if we do start to have lots of people going overseas in July and August because of the potential for bringing more of these new variants back into the country.
“What is really dangerous is if we jeopardise our vaccination campaign by having these variants where the vaccines don’t work as effectively spreading more rapidly.”
The news comes as Europe braces itself for a third wave of coronavirus following a surge in confirmed cases across the continent.
Twenty countries in the European Union have now reported an increase in the rate of positive tests and 15 have said hospital or intensive care admissions have increased, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
In Germany cases of Covid-19 are rising exponentially with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying it is likely that the country will need to re-impose lockdown measures.
Sixteen areas of France including the capital Paris are also to enter a month-long lockdown in a bid to stop the spread of the virus.
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Poland has imposed partial lockdown restrictions after the country recorded its highest new daily rates of Covid cases since November.
Tougher lockdown restrictions have also been imposed in parts of Italy with the whole country set to go into a full lockdown for three days over Easter from April 3 to April 5.
The surge in cases across Europe comes as countries continue to experience a slow vaccine roll-out, which has been hindered by supply problems as well as the suspension of the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in several countries, over fears of possible side effects.
Andrew Hayward, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at University College London and a member of SAGE, said the rise in coronavirus infections in Europe shows the need for the UK to be "careful" as it releases lockdown measures.
He told Times Radio that it was "very worrying" for Europe to be moving into a third wave of coronavirus cases with "comparatively low vaccination levels".
Professor Hayward told the radio station: "From what I understand, quite a lot of that is the emergence of the strain that came from the UK, the B117 strain, which is more transmissible, which is the same strain that's still here now.
"I think it just shows that the lockdown in the UK is necessary and we need to be careful as we release and to watch the figures because this shows the potential for cases to shoot up.
"Obviously it has implications on travel, I think, and what we plan for doing with that, because these waves of infection will tend to last for several months really before they get back down to low levels.
"But unless there's much travel between the countries it shouldn't directly impact us."
