Britain is 'on a knife edge' in coronavirus crisis and could face a severe second wave in winter when people won't be able to tell Covid-19 from a cold, SAGE scientist warns

The UK is 'on a knife edge' in its coronavirus crisis and faces a very real threat of a second surge in the winter, one of the Government's top advisers has warned.

Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the London-based research charity the Wellcome Trust, and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), said he was 'worried' about the prospect of the virus returning.

He said he expects the number of people getting diagnosed with the virus to rise in the next couple of weeks and into July.

Next Saturday, July 4, is expected to see the biggest loosening of lockdown rules since March in England as pubs reopen and people are allowed to mix with other households. 

Sir Jeremy said the country faces a 'very precarious situation' and examples are already emerging of people flouting social distancing rules.

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The UK is 'on a knife edge' in its coronavirus crisis and faces a very real threat of a second surge in the winter, one of the Government's top advisers has warned. Pictured are the scenes in Liverpool this weekend with people not following social distancing rules 

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Hundreds of people attended an illegal mass party on Clapham Common in London yesterday afternoon. It comes as fears have emerged that a second wave of coronavirus could be on the way 

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Hundreds of people attended an illegal mass party on Clapham Common, London yesterday. Many mass gatherings have been taking place across the country 

In Cardiff, piles of hippy crack canisters and empty beer bottles were left behind at late night parties in the bay area to the south of the city yesterday 

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Huge crowds were seen gathered in Cardiff yesterday. Groups were then sent home by the police

The Department of Health has diagnosed an average of 1,018 cases of Covid-19 per day over the last week, the lowest weekly average since the end of March.

But there are still believed to be tens thousands of people infected with the virus - the Office for National Statistics estimates around 51,000 at any given time.

The ONS this week warned that the decline in the number of people getting infected - which had been rapid since May - has now 'levelled off'.

This means that the outbreak is not shrinking as fast as it was before and there's a risk it could start to rise again.

This is likely because lockdown rules have loosened so significantly in the past six weeks, but it could be a sign of danger if numbers start to rise again. 

MILLIONS MORE PEOPLE COULD DIE IN GLOBAL SECOND WAVE OF COVID-19, WHO WARNS AS CASES HIT 10MILLION

More than 10million people have now been infected with the coronavirus and millions across the world could die if there is a second wave of infections in Europe and Asia, the World Health Organisation has warned.

North and South America are still in the grip of raging Covid-19 outbreaks but much of Asia and Europe have emerged from the worst of the pandemic, data shows.

But Dr Ranieri Guerra, an assistant director-general for strategic initiatives at the WHO, said Covid-19 could follow a similar pattern to Spanish Flu and return with devastating consequences. 

Mr Guerra said the 1918/19 pandemic 'fiercely resumed' in September and October - when temperatures were cooler - after a dip in the summer.

He told Italy's Rai TV: 'The comparison is with the Spanish Flu, which behaved exactly like Covid: it went down in the summer and fiercely resumed in September and October, creating 50 million deaths during the second wave.'

His warning was echoed by European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde, who said on Friday that 'of course there could a severe second wave if we learn anything from the Spanish Flu of 1918-19.' 

The Spanish Flu outbreak ravaged numerous countries around the world, including Britain, where there were more than 220,000 deaths and the US, where 675,000 died.

The virus first appeared in the spring of 1918 but appears to have mutated when it surged again in the fall, making for a deadlier second wave.

It was made worse by the fact it struck as the First World War was coming to an end.

'It came back roaring and was much worse,' epidemiologist Dr. William Hanage of Harvard University's T.H. Chan School of Public Health said.

The ONS, which based its estimate on only 14 positive tests from a sample of 24,256 people, said: 'Modelling of the trend over time suggests that the decline in the number of people in England testing positive has levelled off in recent weeks.

'These estimates suggest the percentage testing positive has clearly decreased over time since our first measurement on 26 April, and this downward trend has now flattened.'

Although the speed at which England's outbreak is shrinking has slowed down - which would be expected as lockdown is lifted - Sir Jeremy agreed that it is 'reasonable' to continue loosening rules.

Doing so a month ago would have been too early, he said, and he still urged people to be 'really cautious'.

He was particularly concerned about people being near others while indoors, admitting that being outside was lower risk.      

He added: 'There is no zero risk in any of this. We're not at the stage where the virus has disappeared... It remains the same virus.'

Learning how to contain outbreaks at local levels could avoid a second national disaster like the one which hit the whole UK in March, he said. 

The autumn and winter is likely to be when a real second wave emerged, Sir Jeremy said - he predicted it could start in October and November.

Accelerating this risk would be the fact that normal colds and flu will be circulating by then, and people will struggle to tell the difference between those and Covid-19.

The main symptoms of Covid-19 are a new cough or a fever (high temperature), according to the UK Government's definition. The third is a changed or lost sense of smell or taste.

All three of these symptoms can be caused by flu and colds and people may end up self-isolating with colds or going into work with Covid-19 amid the confusion.

He said: 'The really difficult thing for all us in September, October, is when we all get normal coughs and colds and children are back going to school and they get respiratory infections that are normal at that time of year: have we got the capacity to distinguish normal respiratory infections - influenza and others - from Covid-19?

'Can we interrupt the chains of transmission immediately, within 48 hours, of new cases starting?

'And there will be some disruption of that as people with coughs and colds come into work, come into school places, and people need to think through the consequences of that.  

'Through July and August, if we do things sensibly, we can prevent the national catastrophe that happened in March and April. 

'If we don't - if we don't have those core national infrastructures in place - then we will see a very nasty rebound in the winter.'

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A gathering of people on Clapham Common in London on Saturday evening. Police took action to disperse crowds causing 'significant disruptions'

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Crowds were pictured packed onto Bournemouth beach last week, the police have broken up raves and parties in London and Liverpool FC fans celebrating the team's Premier League win have been partying in the streets against official advice. Pictured is a packed Clapham Common in London on the weekend

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Pictured are scenes from an illegal rave that happened in Tooting Bec in London this weekend