Britain faces a second wave of Covid-19 this winter twice as widespread as the initial outbreak if it reopens schools without a more effective test-and-trace system in place, according to a study.

According to Reuters, researchers from University College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine modelled the impact of reopening schools either on a full- or part-time basis, thus allowing parents to return to work, on the potential spread of the virus.

Researchers conclude a second wave could be prevented if 75 per cent of those with symptoms were found and tested and 68pc of their contacts were traced, or if 87pc of people with symptoms were found and 40pc of their contacts tested.

“However, we also predict that in the absence of sufficiently broad test–trace–isolate coverage, reopening of schools combined with accompanied reopening of society across all scenarios might induce a second Covid-19 wave,” said the study, published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.