MORE than 3000 coronavirus cases have been recorded in the UK for the second day in a row as a top scientist warned that the country is “on the edge of losing control” of Covid-19.

It is the first time since mid-May that recorded cases have been above 3000 on consecutive days, and the figures come as those in England are urged not to have a “party weekend” before the “rule of six” restrictions come into force on Monday.

The UK Government said that as of 9am on Saturday, there had been a further 3497 lab-confirmed cases in the UK, slightly lower than the 3539 cases recorded on Friday.

Former chief scientific adviser and member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) Sir Mark Walport said the only way to stop the virus spreading is to reduce the number of people we all come into contact with, adding that there is an “extremely strong argument” that home working should continue.

Tough new Covid-19 lockdown measures were announced for parts of the UK on Friday as cases continued to rise and as the R number – the reproduction number of coronavirus transmission – climbed above one.

According to Government advisers, the last time R was above one was in early March.

Ahead of the “rule of six” coming into play, the chairman of the body representing rank and file police officers raised concerns about behaviour over the weekend.

John Apter, from the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “There is a real risk some members of the public will take advantage of the current situation and treat this weekend as a party weekend ahead of the tighter restrictions being introduced on Monday.”

When asked whether the UK was still in control of the spread of the virus, Sir Mark said: “I think one would have to say that we’re on the edge of losing control.”

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “You’ve only got to look across the Channel to see what’s happening in France, what’s happening in Spain.

“The French on Thursday had 9,800 new infections and one can see their hospital admissions and indeed their intensive care admissions are going up.”

He added: “The short answer is the only way to stop the spread of this infection is to reduce the number of people we all come into contact with, that lowers the risk.

“It’s a very, very fine balancing act, it’s very important to get youngsters back to school, people to university, but it means we’re going to have to hold back our contacts in other areas.”

The professor said he was “definitely” still working from home, and told the programme: “Where people can work from home, there’s an extremely strong argument that they should do so.”

Meanwhile, it was confirmed that trials of a Covid-19 vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University will resume after a pause due to a reported side effect in a patient in the UK.

Oxford University confirmed that trials would resume across all UK clinical trial sites, adding: “The independent review process has concluded and following the recommendations of both the independent safety review committee and the UK regulator, the MHRA, the trials will recommence in the UK.”

READ MORE: Oxford University coronavirus vaccine trial restarts in UK

And ahead of the “rule of six” coming into play, parents in England have urged the Government to rethink the rule after it barred one family from seeing an ill 95-year-old great-grandparent, while a single mother of six has been stopped from receiving any help with childcare.

Ministers have so far refused to heed calls to remove children from the new law, which prevents groups of more than six from meeting indoors or outdoors from Monday.

The Government dashboard said a further nine people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Saturday. This brings the UK total to 41,623.

Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have now been 57,400 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.