Coronavirus: Ministers have ‘lost control of the virus’, says health expert following spike in cases

‘It’s extraordinarily worrying when schools are opening and universities are going to be going back’

A leading health expert has suggested ministers have “lost control of the virus”, after the UK recorded it’s largest 24-hour spike in Covid-19 cases since 23 May.

Government figures showed there have been a further 2,988 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK as of 9am on Sunday.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases in the UK to 347,152.

Sunday's figure is the highest since May 22 when 3,287 cases were recorded, and is also the first 24-hour period when cases passed 2,000 since the end of May.

The tally was an increase on Saturday's figures of 1,813 new cases.

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Prof Gabriel Scally, a member of the Independent Sage group and a former NHS regional director of public health for the south-west, warned that government ministers had “lost control of the virus”.

“It’s no longer small outbreaks they can stamp on,” he told The Guardian. “It’s become endemic in our poorest communities and this is the result. It’s extraordinarily worrying when schools are opening and universities are going to be going back.”

Health secretary Matt Hancock described the UK figures as "concerning".

He told Sky News: "The cases are predominantly among younger people, but we've seen in other countries across the world and in Europe this sort of rise in the cases amongst younger people leading to a rise across the population as a whole.

"It's so important that people don't allow this illness to infect their grandparents and to lead to the sorts of problems that we saw earlier in the year."

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth called upon the government to respond to the sharp spike.

He added that it was “a stark reminder that there is no room for complacency in tackling the spread of the virus”.

“This increase, combined with the ongoing testing fiasco where ill people are told to drive for miles for tests, and the poor performance of the contact tracing system, needs an explanation from ministers,” he said on Sunday.

"Matt Hancock must come to the House of Commons tomorrow to set out what is being done to get testing back on track and bring case numbers down."

Professor Devi Sridhar, a public health expert at the University of Edinburgh, warned on Sunday morning that the return of schools alongside a push to get workers to return to offices risked overwhelming the UK’s test-and-trace system.

“I'm a little bit worried about the back-to-office push alongside the back-to-school push,” Prof Sridhar, who is also an adviser to the Scottish government, told Sky News.

“What we've seen in Scotland over the past few weeks is the testing system has just been really having to race to catch up with the demand of all the children coming home with coughs and colds and fevers."

She added: “If you add on top of that all the adults going back into offices, and having those as well, your testing system is really under strain.

“So you have to get ready and get your testing system going so people get the results fast enough and the tracing teams can get going.”