A two-week delay to the planned easing of restrictions in England on June 21 is reportedly being considered after the number of people in the country with Covid-19 rose by 75%.

Multiple reports have also suggested plans to lift restrictions could be scaled down, with social distancing and the wearing of face coverings set to continue amid concerns the Indian variant is fuelling a surge in cases.

The UK on Friday recorded its highest number of new confirmed Coronavirus cases ­— 6,238 ­— since late March, according to official figures.

Matthew Murray said: “Life needs to be back to normal eventually ­— there will always be new variants and cases will always rise as restrictions are eased.”

Greg Rose said: “Absolutely pointless, the virus is here to stay, but life needs to go on. Lockdowns work, but they’re not sustainable every few months.”

Mary Kite said: “Course it’s going to be delayed, course they are going to try generate fear once more, they want you to vaccinate your kids! All part of their plan. The script is already written. Wake up people.”

Julie Clarke said: “2 weeks is no big deal after all this time. Hopefully it will bide us time to get more vaccinated. Let’s finish what’s been started.”

Shelly Kendall said: “Why are we still focussing on cases? Surely with the government celebrating their massively successful vaccination programme, we should be monitoring surges in hospital cases?

“We can’t keep locking this country down for something which currently has a mortality rate of around 0.2%.”