UK coronavirus cases have shot above 30,000 per day again, although they are still down more than 20% on last week.
A further 31,117 coronavirus infections have been logged today, which is 22% lower than the 39,906 cases registered last Thursday.
The country also recorded a further 85 deaths today, compared with 84 fatalities last Thursday.
It comes after infections rose for the first time in eight days yesterday, with 27,734 new cases.
However this was 36% down on the 43,492 infections declared last Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the UK has almost reached the coronavirus "Holy Grail" of herd immunity - thanks to the Euros, according to an expert.
Paul Hunter, a professor of drugs at the University of East Anglia, said mass mixing of younger people during the games may have helped push the country towards safety sooner.
He said: "A lot of people might be disgusted by me saying this, but ultimately the Euros might turn out to be one of the things that make the rest of the summer less stressful, as we’ve effectively immunised a lot more younger people who wouldn’t otherwise have come for or been available for a vaccine.
“But I would stress that I would never suggest that as a control strategy in advance.”
While Prof Karl Friston, of University College London, believes Britain reached herd immunity in the spring before the emergence of the Delta variant.
He claimed: "The herd immunity threshold is at present about 93 per cent however our inhabitants immunity is simply 87 per cent.
“But as witnessed by the recent decline in notification rates, we do not need to reach a herd immunity threshold to bring the effective R-number below one and, in principle, suppress viral transmission.”
Hopes are growing that the UK's third wave may have peaked after infections fell for seven days in a row until yesterday.
But Prime Minister Boris Johnson stressed the need for caution despite recent falls in the number of coronavirus cases, saying it is "far too early to draw any general conclusions".
Amid the biggest vaccination campaign in British history, hospital admissions and deaths have remained low compared with previous waves that led to national lockdowns.
It appears there is now speculation within the Government that the UK has reached herd immunity, 16 months on from the first lockdown in March last year.
A senior minister, who wasn't named, told the Daily Mail that the vaccination programme and more than 5.7 million infections meant the virus was struggling to find new hosts and herd immunity had effectively been reached.
The minister said: "It is all over bar the shouting, but no one has noticed.
"Of course we have to guard against the emergence of some terrible new variant. But otherwise Covid is on the point of becoming something you live with.
"It drops into the background, but it does not change anything terribly – maybe you have to take a test once in a while."
Professor Neil Ferguson, whose modelling was the basis for the first lockdown, said on Tuesday he was "positive" the UK would be past the worst of the pandemic by October.
