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There are "signs" the UK is in the early stages of a third wave of coronavirus infections, a scientist advising the government has said.
Prof Ravi Gupta, from the University of Cambridge, said although new cases were "relatively low" the Indian variant had caused "exponential growth".
However, he said the number of people vaccinated meant this wave could take longer to emerge than previous ones.
On Sunday, the UK reported 3,240 new Covid infections.
For the last five successive days there have been more than 3,000 cases recorded. Prior to this, the UK had not topped that number since 12 April.
Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme whether the UK was already in a third wave of infections, Prof Gupta said: "Yes, there has been exponential growth in the number of the new cases and at least three-quarters of them are the new (Indian) variant.
"Of course the numbers of cases are relatively low at the moment - all waves start with low numbers of cases that grumble in the background and then become explosive, so the key here is that what we are seeing here is the signs of an early wave.
"It will probably take longer than earlier waves to emerge because of the fact that we do have quite high levels of vaccination in the population, so there may be a false sense of security for some time, and that's our concern."
The number of people who are fully vaccinated, having received both doses, has now passed 25 million - closing in on half of the British population.
Prof Gupta - a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) - said ending coronavirus restrictions in England on 21 June should be delayed "by a few weeks whilst we gather more intelligence".
"If you look at the costs and benefits of getting it wrong, I think it is heavily in favour of delay, so I think that's the key thing," he added.
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from Via PakapNews