An expert has told peers he would be “very surprised” if the UK avoided a second coronavirus wave.

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee heard that countries like China and Iran have experienced second waves of the outbreak, and that Hong Kong is nearing its third wave.

Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford, told the committee that with lockdown restrictions easing, it is likely the UK will also see a return of the Covid-19 epidemic.

He said: “I think it is possible that we might not have a second wave.

“But I think given the fact that the lockdown has now been largely released, we’re now back in action, and we have still, pretty rapidly declining, but a pretty reasonable level of infections in the community, I would be very surprised if we avoided the second wave.”

Sir John added that this posed two questions.

This would be whether there would be a number of single outbursts around the country, and then a second wave, or if the UK was just going to get a second wave and when.

The warning comes as many European countries reopened their borders after a three-month coronavirus shutdown.

The Herald:

International visitors are still being kept away though and there is uncertainty over whether many Europeans will quickly embrace travel outside their home countries.

The virus is far from being wiped out, and the need for constant vigilance came into sharp focus again as China, where Covid-19 first emerged last year, rushed to contain an outbreak in the capital of Beijing.

The European Union’s 27 nations and a number of other European states are not expected to start reopening to visitors from outside the continent until at least the beginning of July and possibly later.

In Beijing, where an outbreak was traced to a market that supplies much of the city’s meat and vegetables, thousands lined up for tests at hospitals and other facilities. Authorities confirmed 79 cases over four days in what looks to be the largest outbreak since China largely stopped its spread at home more than two months ago.

Tests were being administered to workers at the Xinfadi market, anyone who had visited it in the past two weeks, or anyone who had come in contact with either group. The market is Beijing’s largest wholesale food market, prompting inspections of fresh meat and seafood in the city and elsewhere in China.

Authorities also locked down the neighbourhood around a second market, where three cases were confirmed. In all, 90,000 people are affected in the two neighbourhoods in the city of 20 million.