As the COVID-related restrictions are coming to an end, Britain is gearing up to enjoy holidays. Scientists, however, have warned the public to not be complacent as high levels of infections in the community could likely lead to yet another spike in the cases during fall.

This is because vaccines are proven to be less effective against the COVID-19 delta variant which is now dominant across the UK The delta variant is more transmissible, this means that the nation needs a much higher level of vaccination to gain control over its widespread. For now, about 60% of the people in UK have been fully vaccinated.

“If you’re going to rely on the vaccines, OK, then vaccinate everybody. But they’ve done a half vaccination job and then they’ve opened everything up. And this is a recipe for … things not going well in the next few months,” said Ravi Gupta, a University of Cambridge professor, AP reported. 

Also Read: Indian Air Force sacks staffer for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID

Despite a surge in COVID-19 infections earlier this year, the government on July 19 removed most remaining restrictions on social and business interactions.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the moment as “Freedom Day,” saying Britain’s successful vaccination program meant people were much less likely to get seriously ill or die from the virus.

But after a drop in confirmed new infections following July 19, cases have plateaued at an average of around 25,000 a day, which is more than 10 times higher than in early May.

Also Read: Australian capital Canberra enters snap lockdown after reporting 1 Covid case

Professor Julian Tang, an expert in respiratory diseases at the University of Leicester, is concerned that the infection levels in the community may be higher than the figures suggest and he believes one of the reasons is the government’s reduced emphasis on social distancing measures since the end of lockdown.

“The virus is not going to go away unless you vaccinate everybody, including the children. So I think that there’s too much optimistic, over-confident messaging and people get the wrong idea that you can go out and do everything — don’t wear your mask, go and have a barbecue, have fun indoors. But then when you want to pull back from that, people don’t want to do it because they’ve had that taste of freedom and they don’t trust you anymore,” Tang said, AP reported.