Boris Johnson is facing calls to abandon plans to remove almost all remaining Covid restrictions as a coalition of over 100 scientists and doctors warn it is a “dangerous and unethical experiment”.

After the health secretary admitted daily cases could exceed 100,000 in the summer as measures are lifted on 19 July, the experts stressed there are “grave risks” involved in what they described as an “illogical” policy.

Ashley Cowburn, our political correspondent, reports:

Not as many people are being admitted to hospital with Covid-19 but there is still pressure on the service, the chief executive of NHS Providers has said.

Chris Hopson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Sajid Javid was saying on Monday it is a reasonable expectation that we could hit 100,000 infections a day, and that basically will mean more staff having to self-isolate and it will mean more beds being taken out for Covid-19 patients.”

Our travel correspondent, Simon Calder, reports:

As the travel industry waits to find out how vaccination will replace quarantine for jabbed British travellers returning home, the chief executive of Manchester Airports Group has demanded more clarity on the government’s decisions on quarantine.

Charlie Cornish said: “Our recovery has so far been stifled by the government’s traffic light restrictions on international travel, which are significantly more onerous than other countries.”

Tomorrow the owner of Stansted and East Midlands, as well as Manchester airport, takes the government to court over the “traffic light” categories that control arrivals to the UK.

The government says it is taking a cautious approach to reopening international travel and that all decisions are based on scientific data.

At 11.30am, the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, is expected to reveal how vaccinated travellers arriving from amber list countries will be able to avoid self-isolation.

There are risks to the NHS if England eases coronavirus restriction this month, the chief executive of NHS Providers said.

Chris Hopson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We need to be realistic and we need to be open and honest about the fact that there are risks if we relax these restrictions and there will be consequences.

“The NHS won’t be able to do everything given the demand pressures it has got and the fact that we have got reduced capacity in terms of both beds and staff numbers.”

He said there would be “very significant” pressure on the NHS and “we will have to dial back on elective recovery”.

Fully jabbed Britons are set to avoid quarantine from amber countries from as early as 19 July, the date when all remaining Covid restrictions will be dropped in England.

The prime minister confirmed on Monday that the government would “work with the travel industry towards removing the need for fully vaccinated arrivals to isolate on return from an amber country”.

Currently all arrivals from amber countries – which covers most of Europe – have to self-isolate for 10 days and take two post-arrival PCR tests, regardless of vaccination status.

A date when fully-vaccinated travellers will be able to arrive in England from amber list locations without self-isolating is expected to be announced on Thursday.

The move is set to pave the way for summer holidays to destinations such as mainland Spain, France and Italy.

Cathy Adams has the full story:

Australia’s New South Wales reported 38 new local Covid-19 cases, its biggest daily rise in locally acquired infections this year.

The pace of vaccination is also slow in Australia. Just over 9 per cent of people in NSW have been fully vaccinated, while about 29 per cent have got their first dose, according to Reuters vaccine tracker.

Citing the Delta variant which was first detected in India, NSW state premier Gladys Berejiklian urged residents to limit visits to homes of family and friends.

A government-mandated study has found no traces of the novel coronavirus in Ganges, sources told news agency PTI.

This comes after dozens of bodies were retrieved from the river in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, stoking fears of the spread of the virus through water.

The study extracted the RNA of the viruses from the water samples to conduct an RT-PCR test and check the viral load.

World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that there are now 4 million recorded deaths from Covid-19 around the world, but it likely underestimates the overall toll.

He said the “world is at a perilous point in this pandemic.”

The WHO tally lags behind Reuters’ which reported in June that coronavirus-related deaths worldwide passed the 4 million grim milestone.

The WHO chief also said that far too many countries in every region of the world are seeing sharp spikes in cases and hospitalisation due to variants of the virus and inequity in vaccination.

The state of Uttar Pradesh has confirmed its first two cases of the ‘Delta plus’ variant of Covid-19 — which is a mutation in the Delta variant detected first in India.

One of the patients is a medical student who recovered from the infection in May, but the other patient died the same month, according to Hindustan Times.

The state of Uttarakhand has also sent samples for genome sequencing after the sample of a student from Uttar Pradesh, who was in Uttarakhand to meet his relatives, tested positive for ‘Delta plus’.

The government had said 56 cases of the new variant were reported till 30 June in India.