A BRADFORD science group has warned people about becoming "a Covid statistic this summer" and criticised the Government's plans ahead of "Freedom Day".

Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed in a public press conference yesterday that most Covid-19 legal restrictions would be lifted next Monday (July 19).

The aim is for the country to return to some semblance of normality after a torrid 15 months.

There will be no more social distancing, face masks will no longer be mandatory and there will be no limits on gatherings.

All venues currently closed will be able to safely reopen with no capacity limits.

This is because the Government says vaccines are "significantly reducing the link between infections and severe disease and death", despite the virus being as rampant as ever across the UK.

In the past seven days 228,189 people have tested positive for coronavirus - a rise of 50,061 and 28 per cent from the week before that, according to Government data.

Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, also confirmed in Parliament on Monday that almost all legal restrictions would be lifted next week.

He said: “We firmly believe that this is the right time to get our nation closer to normal life, so we will move to the next stage of our roadmap on July the 19th,”

But the Bradford Science Collective - a group of people with a scientific background, set-up in response to the pandemic by a leader in the field, Professor John Baruch - has heavily criticised the Government's move.

They have urged the public to continue to follow the soon-to-be obsolete legal rules, such as, limiting mixing in crowds, keeping two metres apart, wearing a mask in shops and other crowded places and using hand sanitiser.

In a statement, the group said: "It threatens to be a summer of Conservative chaos and disaster with Boris Johnson’s Government having taken us down a dead end path of failure."

The group listed seven key failures of the Government's response to the pandemic to date, including: not closing the borders at the start, the belief Royal Ascot could run as normal, "the track and trace disaster", sending people into care homes with Covid-19, the PPE (personal protective equipment) shortages, not testing care home staff and not ensuring that people who needed to self-isolate had enough income to allow them to stop working.

The group said: "Until we have ended Covid’s reign of horror there will be more variants and these will tend to reduce the effectiveness of the vaccines.

"It is not flu which we have had for over 1000 years. It is new and we know it is deadly.

"Boris Johnson and his government are running away from their responsibilities which include protecting us and ensuring that, if we need to self-isolate, we can do so without going hungry or being evicted from our home.

"This government’s failures are disastrous.

"Over 130,000 dead so far including many young people who were public facing workers doing their jobs.

"Stay safe this summer and make sure you don’t end up as one of Boris’s 'irrelevant' statistics".

The Prime Minister himself has called for caution from the public with this next step.

He outlined that reopening the country would come with guidance to make it clear that people and firms are expected to continue to take action to limit the spread of the virus and he also warned that Covid-19 cases would continue to rise when we reopen.

Boris Johnson added: "We must all take responsibility so we don't undo our progress, ensuring we continue to protect our NHS."