Britain could be moving too slowly to tackle the sharp rise in Covid-19 cases because of a lag between case numbers and deaths which means fatalities have remained relatively low, a government adviser said.

Graham Medley, a professor of infectious disease modelling, said he worried the country could end up in a position it had tried to avoid, according to Reuters.

“My concern is the lag, is the fact that we end up in a position that we didn't intend to, either government or the population [...] because the numbers of deaths at the moment look very low, even though, as scientists, we say look infections are increasing,” he told BBC Radio.