Britain could be left battling against a vaccine-resistant Covid variant if cases are allowed to spiral to 100,000 a day, scientists warned today.
Sir Paul Nurse, director of the Francis Crick Institute, claimed letting the coronavirus rip may lead to another mutant strain arising in the UK, which could pose a threat to any hopes of a life without lockdown.
But not all scientists monitoring the pandemic are convinced that the summer surge in cases will inevitably turn the UK into a variant factory.
Seeking to play down the fears, the boss of Britain's largest Covid surveillance centre pointed out variants are normally either vaccine resistant or more transmissible.
SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus behind Covid, is constantly evolving and the majority of mutations are 'benign', according to Dr Jeff Barrett, of the Sanger Institute.
The South African 'Beta' variant, which can dodge vaccine-triggered immunity, has failed to gain a foothold in the UK. But the more transmissible Indian 'Delta' variant quickly became dominant, and now accounts for nine in ten cases.
Ministers warned yesterday cases in Britain could hit more than 100,000 a day next month, following 'Freedom Day' on July 19.
The country is currently recording almost 30,000 a day, with the outbreak fuelled by the rapid spread of the Indian Delta variant.
Hospitalisations and deaths are now beginning to tick upwards but Health Secretary Sajid Javid yesterday insisted that the 'wall of protection' from vaccines would hold.
Vaccines still work against the Indian mutant strain, drastically cutting the risk of infected people becoming severely ill. But Boris Johnson has already admitted the emergence of a vaccine-resistant variant could threaten plans in the future.
Sir Paul Nurse, director of the Francis Crick Institute, (left) warned today that high case numbers could spark a vaccine resistant variant. But Dr Jeff Barrett, who directs the largest Covid surveillance centre in the country, sought to play down the fears saying variants tend to be either more transmissible or vaccine resistant
More than 100 Britons could die each day from Covid when Britain finally emerges from lockdown later this month, according to the Government's own assumptions. No10 said it expects up to 50,000 cases a day by July 19 Freedom Day and potentially 100,000 daily cases in August. Professor Neil Ferguson said about 0.1 per cent - or one in 1,000 - of people who catch Covid will die from the virus. The above graph shows how cases and deaths could rise based on these remarks. Deaths lag behind case spikes by about three weeks
Dozens of variants have already been spotted across the world but none are thought to render the current crop of jabs useless.
And Oxford University academics who crafted the AstraZeneca jab say it is unlikely that any mutation will ever completely defeat vaccines.
But the spread of one that dodges immunity could still lead to a spike in hospital admissions and deaths, forcing ministers to divot from their plans.
Sir Paul, a Nobel prize winning geneticist, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'Letting [the] infection spread to large numbers of people... could give rise to another problem, which is encouraging new variants arising within the UK itself.
'We know that vaccinated people generally do not get serious disease but they are still getting infected.
