The success of the UK’s vaccination programme does not mean that the battle with Covid is over, a scientist advising the government has said.
Prof Adam Finn said the country remained vulnerable as there were still large numbers of unvaccinated people.
More than 25 million people in the UK have had two doses of a vaccine – just under half of the adult population.
But there have been warnings the country could be entering the early stages of a third wave of the virus.
The UK has seen a small rise in cases recently linked to the spread of the more transmissible variant first identified in India.
On Monday, the UK reported more than 3,000 new Covid infections for the sixth day in a row.
Prof Finn, from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation which advises the government on vaccine priority that the UK needed to achieve a high coverage of immunity across the population, not just among certain groups.
He joined other government scientific advisers in urging caution over relaxing the coronavirus restrictions too soon, saying it was “so much better to delay slightly than to go around with another cycle” of lockdown restrictions.
He said the new variant first identified in India looked to be more infectious and it was something “we need to take seriously”.
