The UK has recorded its highest number of deaths from Covid-19 in nearly four months, with 96 more fatalities as cases continue to surge.
It comes after a leading professor warned “winter could come early" if viruses are allowed to spread in the UK.
John Edmunds, professor of infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a member of Sage, warned that the country has “quite a difficult few months” ahead.
"I’m not sure about this thing about let’s get the epidemic over with before winter - I don’t buy it,” he told Times Radio.
“If you’re doing little to stop it and the spread of other respiratory viruses, cases of which have been very low because we’ve been in lockdown, then our winter could come early, if you like. Winter is a long way off and we might have new treatments by then. And I’d rather keep incidents as low as we can for as long as we can."
It comes as the US State Department and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both issued their highest warnings against travel to the UK because of a rising number of Covid cases.
