Removing coronavirus restrictions at the end of next month would be a "disaster" and put "enormous pressure" on the NHS, a leading epidemiologist has warned.
Professor John Edmunds, who works on the Government's coronavirus response as part of the scientific advisory group for emergencies (Sage), told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think it would be a disaster if we removed restrictions in, say, the end of February when we have gone through this first wave of the vaccination.
"First of all vaccines aren't ever 100% protective, and so even those that have been vaccinated would be still at some risk.
"Secondly, it is only a small fraction of the population who would have been vaccinated and if you look at the hospitalisations at the moment, about half of them are in the under 70s, and they are not in the first wave to be vaccinated. You can find out the vaccination figures for your area here.
"If we relaxed our restrictions we would immediately put the NHS under enormous pressure again."
The chief executive for NHS Wales said earlier this week that the impact of coronavirus restrictions, including the lockdown measures, would take some weeks to be felt in the NHS.
He said it "would be a while yet" before the number of admissions to hospital or the number of people needing critical care start to fall.
"There are now around 2,870 Covid-related patients in Welsh hospitals – the highest on record. We have now exceeded double the peak we experienced during the first wave in April," he said, adding that the NHS would have to begin making difficult decisions about the balance of services it can provide.
More than a third of Welsh hospital beds were occupied by Covid-related patients, he said.
"We would not normally start the very busy winter period with a third of our beds unavailable for normal NHS pressures. This is simply unprecedented," he said.
