The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges said people should remain cautious, even as the government plans to announce the lifting of COVID 19 restrictions.
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The medical professionals want people to continue wearing face coverings in crowded indoor spaces. The Academy has also warned that the NHS is under unprecedented pressure as cases are 'rising dramatically'.
This week, the prime minister said most of the measures in place to fight the spread of the virus would be dropped when the lockdown ends on July 19—a final confirmation is expected from PM Boris Johnson on Monday.
On Friday the latest government figures showed an increase of 35,707 Covid cases across the UK - the highest daily figure since 22 January.
Profoundly concerning
Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairwoman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the academy was cautious about 'issuing dire warnings' but she had become 'profoundly concerned' over the last couple of weeks about the idea of removing all restrictions on 19 July.
We’ve only just heard in this bulletin about the rising numbers of cases, the rising numbers of people requiring hospital treatment, in intensive care and sadly deaths are starting to rise again, tooThere seems to be a misapprehension that life will return to normal from then and that we can throw away all the precautions and, frankly, that would be dangerous.
The AoMRC, which represents 23 medical bodies responsible for training and development in various specialties, said in a statement:
There is little doubt that things will get worse before they get better. There is no doubt that we will get to a position when this dangerous and erratic disease is largely under control for the population as a whole and we can 'learn to live with' Covid-19. However, we are not in that position yet and sadly, we have to expect things to get worse again.
Increasing cases
Patient numbers have risen to levels last seen around March and there has also been a slight increase in the number of deaths reported each day.
This statistic is of people who died in England within 28 days of testing positive for COVID 19. However, this is far below the sort of numbers seen in January and February of this year.
