There is a 'high chance' that the next variant of Covid-19 could be the worst one we've seen, warns the UK Government's chief medical advisor Sir Chris Witty.
Speaking at a virtual meeting of local Government officials on Wednesday, Mr Witty warned that while the UK has one of the world leading vaccination roll outs and booster programmes, Britain and the rest of the world will remain vulnerable to a mutation.
His dire warning comes as it is thought that one in 11 Scots have Covid.
As Leicester Live reports, he said there is a high chance of a worst variant and suggested that lockdowns may not be a thing of the past if the strain causes a new wave on infection.
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The medical advisor stressed the importance of remaining vigilant and not becoming complacent as he told his audience, Covid still has the power to 'throw surprises' and will be with us 'for the rest of our lives'.
This comes as the UK marks two years since the first lockdown took place with many looking froward to a future without worrying about the virus which took the lives of 164, 123 in Britain, the highest death rate in Europe.
However, the threat of mutations continues to hang over every epidemiologist monitoring the situation, he said.
Sir Chris has stated that the UK would likely be hit by seasonal waves of Covid for the next 'two or three years'. That will be 'interspersed' by new variants of varying seriousness.
He said: "There's a high chance that we will all be discussing and I will be discussing with my colleagues, a new variant at some point in the next two years that actually significantly changes our balance of risk. We could well end up with a new variant that produces worse problems than we've got with Omicron and the Omicron problems are by no means trivial".
Infection rates in Britain remain at more than 100,000 per day recently, but due to high levels of immunity, hospitalisations and deaths are proportionally 'low' at around 200 fatalities a-day.
