Parliament will next week decide whether to renew the Coronavirus Act which gave the Government sweeping emergency powers to control the spread of COVID-19. The act has already been in place for two years but Mark Harper, the Conservative MP who chairs the influential Covid Recovery Group of lockdown sceptics, said there was no need to renew the legislation which contained “the most draconian detention powers in modern British legal history”.

       Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has been warned it is already too late to avoid a fourth wave of COVID-19 in the Autumn as fears of another extreme lockdown brew.

       Yesterday, the UK recorded 178 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test and a further 38,154 cases.

       The booster jab programme, which was due to start on Monday, is set to be delayed as the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has still yet to publish their final advice.

       Mr Openshaw said: “If we wait for everything to report before making a judgment, we may well be past the time when we should have been making a decision.”

       READ MORE: Covid-19: How many cases of the Mu variant are in the UK?

       Prime Minister Boris Johnson has insisted the booster roll-out will start this month, despite no JCVI approval yet.

       Professor Neil Ferguson has also warned if daily cases rise above 100,000 the NHS would start to come under significant pressure, which could trigger another lockdown.

       The Sage member said: “We expect to see a significant surge in cases, but whether that’s going to require any rolling back of the relaxation of restrictions is too early to say.”

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