There is “no doubt” Britain will face a new wave of Covid-19 infections, the UK’s national statistician has warned.

According to the latest government figures, more than 23.6 million people have already received their fist jab of the coronavirus vaccine.

However, this will not stop a rise in infection rates when lockdown restrictions start to ease according to the head of the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One, Professor Sir Ian Diamond said: “We need also to recognise that this is a virus that isn’t going to go away.

“And I have no doubt that in the autumn there will be a further wave of infections.”

Despite hailing the “wonderful” vaccine rollout, Sir Ian explained that the fall in Covid infections in the UK was not entirely down to the rollout.

He said: “I mean I would say though that this has been an incredibly impressive vaccine rollout, and we’ve been looking at antibodies in the population, and we’ve been scaling up our survey in order to be able to take many more blood tests so that we can look at the impact.

“And what we’re seeing is quite remarkable increases in the level of antibodies in the over-80s, and increasingly in the over-70s. So, I’m very, very confident that the vaccine rollout is really starting to provide some real protection.

“At the other side, we see very relatively high levels amongst young people which just shows how much of young people have been affected by the virus.

“I’d finally just say on this that there is a lot of regional variation, so we find 30% of London have antibodies whereas only 16% in the South West, so we need to recognise that as well.”

The warning backs Chris Whitty’s prediction last week.

England’s Chief Medical Officer predicted another deadly “surge” of coronavirus across the country as lockdown restrictions ease.

Chris Whitty warned “all modelling” suggests cases will soar as lockdown restrictions ease and rejected call from MPs to ease lockdown restrictions faster.

"If you open up too fast, a lot more people die - a lot more people die," he said.

He added: “As things are opening up, what all the modelling suggests is at some point we will get a surge in virus.

"Whether that happens, we hope it doesn’t happen soon, but it might for example happen later in the summer if we open up gradually, or if there’s a seasonal effect it might happen over the next autumn or winter.

“But I think all the modelling suggests there is going to be a further surge and that will find the people who have either not been vaccinated or where the vaccine’s not worked.

"Some of them will end up in hospital and sadly some of them will go on to die. That’s just the reality of where we are.”