A leading government scientist has warned that pubs could be forced to close to allow for the safe reopening of schools in September.
Professor Graham Medley, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said the government needs to consider whether we think pubs are "more important" than schools when considering further lockdown easing.
It comes a day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a delay to further easing of restrictions, with Covid-19 cases reportedly on the rise in Britain.
Speaking at a press conference, the Prime Minister was asked about whether he would put "lives against livelihoods" in the easing of restrictions - including the reopening of schools.
But Professor Medley says the issue may come down to a "trade off" between allowing children back into schools and adults into pubs.
Appearing on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Professor Medley said: "I think that’s quite possible.
“I think we’re in a situation whereby most people think that opening schools is a priority for the health and wellbeing of children and that when we do that we are going to reconnect lots of households.
“And so actually, closing some of the other networks, some of the other activities may well be required to enable us to open schools.
“It might come down to a question of which do you trade off against each other and then that’s a matter of prioritising, do we think pubs are more important than schools?”
Professor Medley added that the rise in coronavirus infections appeared to be among younger people, but warned there was a danger it could “spill” over into other parts of the population.
The chairman of the Sage sub-group on pandemic modelling told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: "The age distribution of infections has changed, it has moved down into younger age groups and so it is likely we won’t see that increase in hospital admissions related to infection in the same way we did in March.
“But the big fear is the virus just gets out of control and we end up in a situation where there is so much virus that it inevitably spills out into all sections of the population.”
He added that the increased lockdown measures in areas across the north-west of England were “highly unlikely” to be the “last intervention that has to be done regionally”.
“I fully expect that there will have to be other interventions at other times but what the interventions are really depends on what happens,” he said.
