Britain’s government needs to bring in tighter coronavirus lockdown rules to avert a fresh wave of deaths from a new variant of the disease, a leading epidemiologist warned on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

Britain reported 41,385 new Covid cases on Monday, the highest number since testing became widely available in the middle of 2020, and hospitals have more Covid patients than during the first wave of the pandemic in April.

“We are entering a very dangerous new phase of the pandemic, and we’re going to need decisive early national action to prevent a catastrophe in January and February,” Andrew Hayward, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at University College London, told the BBC.

“We’re really looking at a situation where we’re moving into near-lockdown,” he said.

More than 71,000 people in Britain have died within 28 days of a positive test for the disease.