The version of Covid that sent the UK into lockdown and scores of people onto mechanical ventilation is essentially gone thanks to community immunity, an ex-Government scientific advisor has claimed.
Daily UK cases have fallen week-on-week since Friday after rocketing at the start of March, which was attributed to the release of restrictions on Freedom Day and the rise of the BA.2 variant.
Oxford University s Sir John Bell, who served as Boris Johnson s testing tsar, praised the effort of scientists over the last two years but was critical of his old employers.