Third of England still without any Covid immunity, scientist warns

Some argue delaying reopening would make little difference while other say government taking big risk

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As ministers proceed with lifting most of England's restrictions next week, a third of the population is still unprotected from getting infected with Covid, scientists have estimated.

There have been about 15 million infections so far (roughly 27% of England's population), and once partial and full vaccinations are accounted for that leaves approximately 33% of the population still susceptible to being infected with the Delta variant that is now dominant, said Matt Keeling, a professor of populations and disease at the University of Warwick and a member of a Sage subcommittee focused on infectious disease modelling and epidemiology (Spi-M).