Professor Peter Openshaw, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) which advises the Government, said he fears another “lockdown Christmas”.
He was asked what people can expect from Christmas if Government policy does not change.
Speaking in a personal capacity, Prof Openshaw of Imperial College London told BBC Breakfast: “I’m very fearful that we’re going to have another lockdown Christmas if we don’t act soon.
“We know that with public health measures the time to act is immediately. There’s no point in delaying.
“If you do delay then you need to take even more stringent actions later. The immediacy of response is absolutely vital if you’re going to get things under control.
“We all really, really want a wonderful family Christmas where we can all get back together.
“If that’s what we want, we need to get these measures in place now in order to get transmission rates right down so that we can actually get together and see one another over Christmas.”
Prof Openshaw said not acting now to curb infection rates is “unacceptable”.
He said: “I think we all are desperate to get back to normal life and I can absolutely understand why the Government is listening to pressure from industry and its own inclinations to really open up, but the figures at the moment really do show we’ve got too many cases out there.
“It’s just, I think, unacceptable to be letting this run at the moment.”
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It will probably never happen to you - but you can never be sure. How would you respond if stopped while walking home alone by someone claiming to be a police officer?
The natural response of many people would be to comply with the individual's directions, despite the initial shock.
You'd most probably assume there had been a simple mistake that could quickly be ironed out as long as you cooperate.
Right-thinking members of the public tend to support the difficult job the police have in tackling crime and keeping us safe.
So we'd like to help if we can - especially if we have nothing to hide.
Unfortunately, however, there have been cases of criminals impersonating police officers in order to gain the confidence of would-be victims.
And you'd be particularly vulnerable if you were, say, a woman walking home from work or a night out - alone.
In the tragic case of Sarah Everard's murder, it was a serving officer who staged a fake arrest to kidnap her.
The 33-year-old marketing executive had been walking home from a friend's house in London on the night of March 3, this year, when she was duped into a car by Wayne Couzens - under the false pretence she'd breached Covid-19 regulations.
In response to Sarah's murder, and a subsequent crisis in confidence on the part of many women in the Metropolitan Police, it has introduced a new system for the conduct of its plain-clothed officers.
Under the new protocol, announced this week, they will have to video call a uniformed colleague to confirm their identity when stopping a lone woman.
It is a policy aimed at offering reassurance to the public after Sarah's killing, and Couzens' recent conviction and imprisonment for her rape and murder.
Photo of Sarah Everard issued by the Crown Prosecution Service (Image: Family Handout/CPS/PA Wire)
The new directions and advice for officers and the public in London, however, is unlikely to be adopted here in Leicestershire at the moment, it has emerged.
When LeicestershireLive approached Leicestershire Police to discuss the changes in the capital, we were told the force "would not comment on the policies of another police force".
It means that plain-clothed officers in the city and county will continue to follow the same protocol already in place when it comes to confronting lone women - or lone men for that matter - in the execution of their duties.
The advice to anyone approached by such a person remains the same as it was prior to Sarah Everard's killing.
Serving Met police officer Wayne Couzens (right) pictured approaching Sarah Everard before he kidnapped, raped and murdered her (Image: PA)
So, what is it?
Well, a spokesperson for Leicestershire Police provided a one-line response to our inquiry.
They said: "Our current policy recommends people ask for a warrant card and, if in any doubt, to phone the police."
The force would not elaborate on the issue, discuss the matter or field any further questions aimed at offering reassurance to the public.
With fake police warrant cards available on the internet, it would suggest that the best course of action if alone and stopped by someone claiming to be a plain-clothed officer would be to immediately call the 101 number and ask for Leicestershire Police to verify the officer's credentials.
Vigil held in Leicester City Centre in memory of Sarah Everard and other victims of abuse, murder and violence. (Image: Izzie/Dale Hasty)
If you feel your safety is under threat you should call 999 straight away.
Dame Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, announced the new system in the capital to members of the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee.
The force was heavily criticised after suggesting that women who were concerned they were not being stopped legitimately should try to flag down a passing bus or run to a nearby house.
When asked whether the advice had been reviewed, Dame Cressida told the committee: "I completely understand why that ended up as the headline.
Dame Cressida Dick
"It was not intended, and it is not how we see things. Yes we have reviewed it and I think we would address the question differently were it to come again in the future.
"What I can say today is that we are launching our Safe Connection, as we call it, which allows a woman who is stopped by such a police officer immediately to have verification that this is a police officer.
"Because my plain-clothes officers will call into a control room, they will then have a video call with a sergeant in uniform who will say 'yes, that's so-and-so, he's PC XYZ'.
"So it's a quick and easy way which is instigated by the officer, not by the woman having to ask for this."
Call the NHS 111 service if you urgently require medical help or advice. The service is available 24-hours-a-day, 365-days-a-year. Calls are free from landlines and mobile phones.
Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust/Turning Point: 0808 800 3302. A Freephone helpline for people of any age in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland for their own urgent mental health needs or for others with urgent needs they are concerned about.
Information on a range of mental health problems and support. Lines are open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays).
HOPELineUK: 0800 068 41 41
A specialist telephone service staffed by trained professionals at PAPYRUS who give non-judgemental support, practical advice and information to children, teenagers, young adults aged up to 35 and anyone concerned about a young person. Opening hours are 10am to 10pm, Mondays to Fridays, 2pm to 5pm, weekends and bank holidays.
Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide, (SoBS): 0300 111 5065. Helpline is open from 9am until 9pm Monday to Sunday.
Out-of-hours mental health helpline offering specialist emotional support and information to anyone affected by mental illness, including family, friends and carers. Open every day from 6pm to 11pm.
Professional help and advice on a range of problems, such as debt relief, benefits, housing and legal problems. Lines are available Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
Wiltshire Police had already announced a similar scheme whereby officers will put their personal radio on loudspeaker and ask their control room to confirm their identity.
Dame Cressida stressed that the onus should be on the police officer to properly identify themselves, and that the bus advice given was "if all else fails" when someone may want to try to get help.
She said: “I want to be clear, the onus is on the officer."
Sarah Everard's killer received a life sentence last month after admitting to her kidnap, rape and murder.
The police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct is currently considering whether allegations about Couzens' previous conduct - including an accusation of indecent exposure in 2015 and again in the days before Sarah's murder - were properly investigated by Kent Police and the Met.
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A 14-year-old boy is among four people arrested on suspicion of murder following a triple stabbing sparked by a "verbal dispute".
Police were called to reports of an assault outside the Royal British Legion on High Street, Lymington, on Friday at 11.55pm, where they found two men and a woman with stab wounds, a HampshirePolice spokesman said.
A 23-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene. His next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers.
Image:Two men and a woman were found with stab wounds on Friday evening
Another 23-year-old man suffered serious injuries and is being treated at Southampton General Hospital.
A 23-year-old woman received superficial chest wounds which are not life-threatening. She is being treated at the same hospital.
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The teenager is among four people, all from Lymington, who have been arrested on suspicion of murder, police said.
The others are men aged 29, 20 and 18. They are all currently in custody.
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Detective Chief Inspector Dave Storey said: "This is a serious incident and our thoughts remain with the family of the young man who was killed.
"We believe this incident occurred following a verbal dispute at the Royal British Legion and we have arrested four people as part of our enquiries.
"Please be reassured that officers remain on scene and there will be increased patrols in the area.
"If you have any concerns, or any information about this incident, please do not hesitate to approach officers."
Asked by The Scotsman whether any enforcement action had been taken by councils in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee and Inverness, each council said no premises had yet been hit by the enforcement powers available.
Local authorities are using the so-called ‘four E’s’ approach, with enforcement being the last resort for environmental health officers if venues do not abide by the rules.
No nightclubs saw enforcement action in the first week of the vaccine certification being in full force.
This weekend will be the first full weekend nightclubs and other venues will be expected to fully comply with the restrictions imposed by the vaccine certification scheme, which requires any customer to have a copy of their vaccine status available to gain entry.
The scheme was brought in on October 1, but enforcement was delayed until October 18 by the Scottish Government, ostensibly to provide venues and larger venues such as football clubs time to test the systems required to implement the scheme.
However, industry insiders said the mere threat of enforcement action was enough to see venues close at midnight.
Stephen Montgomery, spokesperson for the Scottish Hospitality Group, said many venues captured by the definition of nightclub within the vaccine certification scheme were not taking the risk of opening for fear of enforcement action.
He said: “Enforcement is a last resort and we hope that nobody will get to the enforcement level, but that is still a threat.
"The message is not out there that this is not nightclubs. This is 2,000 businesses that are captured in this definition of nightclub.
"There are a lot of anxious owners around at the moment. Anybody that has any sign of anxiety or fear, they are just going to lock up.
“Our call this week is for everybody to bear in mind to be kind to hospitality and don’t take their anger out on door staff cause they are only there doing the job that they have been told to do by the government.”
Confirmation there had been no enforcement in the first week of the scheme has led to opposition politicians repeating their calls for the scheme to be scrapped.
Scottish Labour labelled it a “publicity stunt gone wrong” and called on the SNP to “admit defeat”.
The party’s health and Covid recovery spokesperson, Jackie Baillie, said: “Now the SNP’s shambolic vaccine passport scheme is fully in place, it’s still no clearer what its purpose is.
“It’s good to see councils aren’t taking a heavy-handed approach to enforcing this misguided scheme, but they shouldn’t have been left to enforce the unenforceable in the first place.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that this scheme was nothing more than a publicity stunt gone wrong from the SNP.
“It’s time for them to admit defeat and focus on measures that actually work – like our beleaguered Test and Protect system and the lagging vaccine booster programme.”
The Scottish Liberal Democrats, who have opposed the scheme from the start, said the initiative was “lulling people into a false sense of security”.
Party leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: "The SNP and Green's Covid ID cards have been flawed from the outset. It should come as no surprise that they are proving to be an unenforceable burden rather than part of our response to Covid-19.
"Far from offering protection against the virus, vaccine certification is actually lulling people into a false sense of security.
“Vaccines, a properly managed booster programme and a rigorous test and trace system are the answer, not Covid ID cards. Scottish Liberal Democrats will continue to campaign for this ineffective solution to be ditched.”
According to the latest Scottish Government figures, 19 coronavirus deaths and 2,902 cases have been recorded in the past 24 hours.
It means the death toll under this daily measure, of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days, is now 9,031.
The daily test positivity rate was 8.8 per cent, up from 7.4 per cent the previous day.
There were 894 people in hospital on Thursday with recently confirmed Covid-19, down 23 on the previous day, with 60 in intensive care, up two.
So far 4,299,649 people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination and 3,888,408 have received a second dose.
The Scottish Government was contacted for comment.
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Scientists advising the UK government say plans for reintroducing stricter Covid measures should be undertaken now and be ready for "rapid deployment".
Advising people to work from home could have the greatest impact on stopping viral spread, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) says.
It comes as ministers in England resist pressure to re-introduce controls, such as compulsory mask-wearing.
Covid hospital admissions and deaths across the UK are rising slowly.
Daily cases are now over 50,000, but the Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said they could double in the coming months.
The advisers, led by Sir Patrick Vallance, say models forecasting the coming winter suggest Covid hospital admissions are "increasingly unlikely" to rise above the levels of January 2021 peak, but they are unsure of the impact of waning immunity and people's behaviour.
Sage says making face coverings compulsory in some places is likely to help reduce the spread of Covid as well as other winter viruses, such as flu.
It also notes the risks of high levels of the virus circulating in the UK, compared with other countries.
"Cases and admissions are currently at much higher levels than in European comparators, which have retained additional measures and have greater vaccine coverage, especially in children," the scientists say.
"Reducing prevalence from a high level requires greater intervention than reducing from a lower level."
Another worry is the emergence of a new variant that becomes "dominant globally", which they call "a very real possibility".
And this winter, the advisers warn that the prospect of people being infected with Covid, flu and other respiratory viruses could be "a significant challenge", saying people who show symptoms of an infection should stay at home to stop it spreading to others.
This message needs to come from government, employers, universities and schools to be most effective, they say.
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Boris Johnson has said there is "absolutely nothing to indicate" the country will enter a new lockdown this winter, although he added the government would "do whatever we have to do to protect the public".
On a visit to a vaccination centre in west London on Friday, the prime minister repeated his call for those who are eligible to come forward to get the "fantastic" COVID booster jabs.
But the prime minister maintained he was not yet ready to reintroduce COVID measures in England - under the government's "Plan B" - in an attempt to dampen the rising number of infections.
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Will boosters be five months soon?
He inisisted the current rate of infections was "fully in line" with predictions made earlier this year.
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Asked whether was ignoring the advice of scientists by not yet reintroducing the command for people to work from home where they can, Mr Johnson said: "We keep all measures under constant review - we'll do whatever we have to do to protect the public.
"But the numbers that we're seeing at the moment are fully in line with what we expected in the autumn and winter plan.
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"What we want people to do is to come forward and get their jabs.
"We also want young people, we want kids at school to be getting their jabs with complete confidence and there will be booking systems opening from tomorrow in addition to the vaccination programme in schools.
"The message is that the boosters are fantastic, the levels of protection are really very high."
Pressed on whether a full national lockdown was out of the question, Mr Johnson replied: "I've got to tell you at the moment that we see absolutely nothing to indicate that that is on the cards at all."
The prime minister also confirmed that "a lot of people are looking at" whether the time between a second vaccine dose and a third booster jab should be shortened from six months to five months for most people, as has been suggested by former health secretary Jeremy Hunt.
"That's a very good question and it's an important question. I think a lot of people are looking at that issue," Mr Johnson said.
"I heard with great interest what Anthony Harnden of the JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation)... had to say this morning about that.
"I think that people should be coming forward with the same spirit of determination to get their boosters as we saw earlier on this year. It's a very good thing to do, it gives you a huge amount of protection.
"We always expected that we would see numbers rise right about now - that is happening. And you've also got into account the waning effectiveness of the first two jabs, so get your booster now."
Earlier on Thursday, Prof Harnden, the deputy chair of the JCVI, said the independent committee would look at cutthing the timeframe between second doses and boosters.
He said six months had been shown to be the "sweet spot" for having a booster, adding the main issues in the programme were accessibility to the vaccine and persuading people to have one.
