The UK is at a precarious point as Covid-19 cases and hospital admissions continue to rise.

Another national coronavirus lockdown is a possibility, according to Prof Peter Horby, a leading UK scientist.

The prime minister has already announced tougher local restrictions this month by introducing a three-tier system, where each region in England is placed into a tier based on the severity of cases in the area.

The number of new Covid-19 infections is growing by between 3% and 6% per day, according to SAGE, while the UK’s coronavirus reproduction (R) number currently stands at 1.2-1.4.

Another 102 Covid-19 fatalities were reported yesterday, while another 20,890 infections were confirmed.

Yesterday’s increase in deaths marks the highest increase on a Monday since 25 May, when 104 fatalities were recorded.

It brings the country’s official death toll to 44,998.

“There is only thing certain about the future and that’s you need to be fully prepared and ready for it,” said Nick Neill, head of EweMove.

The hybrid agency says that it has performed strongly in recent months thanks to work carried out during the last nationwide lockdown.

Neill continued: “Sometimes in life and business you only really get to see results months after the action has been taken. We’ve seen many of our franchisees achieve record months since the market reopened. We believe that’s a legacy of what we did during the lockdown.”

Neill explained that EweMove had swung into action before Boris Johnson sent the UK into lockdown on 23 March.

He added: “We acted before the lockdown was announced as we could see what was on its way.

“Pre-lockdown, we ensured all our existing cloud-based technology was working well and would allow our franchisees and head office staff to continue to work safely and successfully from home.

“We kept a highly visible presence on social media and across our digital platforms during the lockdown.

“But perhaps the most significant thing we did was also one of the simplest. We encouraged our franchisees to get on the phone and speak with everyone in their database, see how they were and if they needed any help with anything?

“When lockdown relaxed franchisees had a healthy pipeline of enquiries to work on which has now translated into listings volumes in September 2020 being 76.5% higher than we saw in September 2019.”