A top scientist has warned the number of coronavirus cases could reach 100,000 a day within weeks.
Professor John Edmunds, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said the disease would continue to spread with the lifting lockdown restrictions in England on Monday.
"I think this wave of the epidemic will be quite long and drawn out," he told the BBC Radio 4 programme.
"My hunch is that we are looking at a high level of incidence for a protracted period right through the summer and probably through much of the autumn."
Prof Edmunds said cases could reach 100,000 a day within weeks.
He added: "We are at about 50,000 a day now. The epidemic has been doubling roughly every two weeks and so if we allow things as they are for another couple of weeks you could expect it to get to 100,000 cases a day."
He said the country is facing is facing a prolonged period with a high level of coronavirus infections and added that it was inevitable cases would rise as restrictions were eased before people were vaccinated.
Professor Edmunds added: "We started easing restrictions before everybody was vaccinated. That is going to lead to infections in the unvaccinated people - primarily in this instance the younger individuals. It is inevitable that that was going to happen."
The Beta variant of the coronavirus spreading in France may evade vaccines,
The Government has said travellers returning from France - unlike other amber list destinations - must continue to self-isolate even if they are fully vaccinated.
He told the Today programme ministers were right to be concerned.
Professor Edmunds said: "The Beta variant has remained a threat throughout. It is probably less infectious than the Delta variant that is spreading here in the UK at the moment.
"Where it has an advantage is that it is able to escape the immune response to a better extent."
"As the population here becomes more and more immune, the conditions are right then for the Beta variant to get an advantage, so I can understand the concern.
"Of the variants that are out there and are known about, that one has always been a threat to us.
"There is some good evidence from South Africa that it can evade the immune response generated by the AstraZeneca vaccine more efficiently."
Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer has has already warned that if hospital admissions begin doubling and the jabs rollout was not "topping out" the pandemic, in "five, six, seven eight weeks' time" the Prime Minister may need to "look again" at restrictions.
The Mirro r reported how Professor Whitty said doubling time for hospital cases was "around three weeks" and while the number of hospitalisations was "mercifully much lower", it was "not trivial".
He said: "We've still got over 2000 people in hospital, and that number is increasing.
"If we double from 2000 to 4000, from 4000 to 8000, to 8000 and so on, it doesn't take many doubling times till you're into very very large numbers indeed."
