The UK has recorded nearly 36,060 new Covid infections in a day and 127 deaths.
It marks the 19th day in a row where infections have been over 30,000.
Governmental advisor Professor Neil Ferguson warned the UK does not have much “headroom” for rising Covid-19 cases before the NHS becomes “heavily stressed”.
Professor Ferguson, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) from Imperial College London, told MPs the political decision to “live with Covid” was behind the UK’s current level of transmission, which is higher than in many other countries.
He also reiterated his belief that the UK was too slow to lock down last autumn, a decision that cost lives.
Prof Ferguson suggested the Government’s Plan B for tacking Covid, which could see mandatory face masks brought back, Covid passports introduced and people told to work from home, could be triggered if hospital admissions reached 1,200 a day from the current figure of about 600.
He told the all-party group on coronavirus: “We are starting with quite a high incidence and so we don’t have very much headroom for increases.
“If we compare, for instance, incidence of Covid cases per day in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Portugal, there is a much lower level than us, so they can afford to see something of a surge of transmission, which they may well, without unduly stressing the health system.
“We are much closer to the limit of what the NHS can cope with. We will come on to plan B, I think that is what is exercising Whitehall and policymakers, is that limited headroom.”
The Mirror recently reported how cases of a new mutated Covid variant which could get around the vaccine have doubled in two weeks in the UK.
The strain, which is a version of the Delta coronavirus variant with a mutation called E484K, has been a cause of concern for scientists for some months.
Studies have suggested that antibodies created by the jab may be less effective at stopping its spread than with previous versions of the virus.
