A member of SAGE has warned the Prime Minister not to bring forward ‘Freedom Day’ to July 5 as an announcement is expected tomorrow.
Boris Johnson or his team are expected to confirm on Monday whether he will use a two-week “break clause” to ease some restrictions early in England.
But, as the Mirror reports, Professor Peter Horby said Mr. Johnson must not “rush into” easing restrictions before July 19.
The member of the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (SAGE) warned it would be a "bumpy road" out of the pandemic, predicting more variants will appear.
While a final decision has not yet been made, ministers have already said it is “unlikely” that England’s restrictions will end early on July 5.
Professor Horby said: “July 19 as the earliest is what’s actually been said. And we always have to be driven by the data, not the dates.
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“So we’re watching it very carefully and there’ll be a lot of the analysis of the data coming up to that date to make sure we’re comfortable with that release.
“At the moment, the data is encouraging that we can do that, but we have to make sure we follow the data.”
He was asked if it should move forward to July 5, Professor Horby said on BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “No, I wouldn’t do that.
“I think it was a very sensible move to put it back by four weeks and I don’t think we should rush into anything.
“We really want to make sure we can release all restrictions and not have to backtrack at all.”
He said “it’s going to be a bumpy tail” out of the pandemic, adding: “You’ve seen Sydney reintroduce lockdown measures. We’ve seen Israel reintroduce masks.
“We’ve seen the Alpha variant and now we’ve seen the Delta variant… and we will see many more.
“So we have to expect it will be a bumpy road out and there will be twists and turns that we’re not wishing to see.”
The warning comes after the new Health Secretary Sajid Javid ignored questions shouted at him outside his new office, on if the lockdown rules would end on July 19.
He said: “We are still in a pandemic. I want to see that come to an end as soon as possible.
“And that will be my most immediate priority, to see that we can return to normal as soon and as quickly as possible.”
The NHS has said half of all adults aged under 30 in England will have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by Sunday.
More than 4.2 million people aged between 18 and 29 have received a jab just three weeks after the coronavirus vaccination programme was opened up to those in their 20s.
