SCIENTISTS have warned the UK could see another 50,000 coronavirus deaths before the pandemic is over.

Boris Johnson said he was "deeply sorry" on Tuesday when Britain's Covid-19 death toll officially passed 100,000.

He insisted he takes "full responsibility” for the response to the pandemic and said “we did everything we could” to minimise suffering.

But one Government scientist has warned there could be another 50,000 deaths from coronavirus.

Professor Calum Semple, who sits on the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), warned every Covid fatality “represents probably four or five people who survive but are damaged” by the disease.

“It would really not surprise me if we’re looking at another 40-50,000 deaths before this burns out,” he told BBC Two’s Newsnight programme.

In March, before the Prime Minister announced the first national lockdown, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said keeping the death toll below 20,000 would be a “good outcome”.

Referring to the 100,000 deaths now surpassed, Mr Johnson said it was “hard to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic”.

England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty braced the country for “a lot more deaths over the next few weeks before the effects of the vaccines begin to be felt” and cautioned against relaxing restrictions “too early”.

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Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the 100,000 deaths milestone was a “national tragedy” and accused the Government of being “behind the curve at every stage” in its response to the pandemic, ahead of grilling Mr Johnson during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.

Home Secretary Priti Patel is widely expected to announce a limited plan for new arrivals in England to quarantine in hotels when she later details to the House of Commons border protections against new coronavirus variants arriving from overseas.

The Times reports Ms Patel had pushed for a temporary closure of the UK’s borders to stop the spread of the variants but she was overruled by the PM.

Mr Johnson told a Downing Street press conference: “I think on this day I should just really repeat that I am deeply sorry for every life that has been lost and of course as I was Prime Minister I take full responsibility for everything that the Government has done.

“What I can tell you is that we truly did everything we could, and continue to do everything that we can, to minimise loss of life and to minimise suffering in what has been a very, very difficult stage…

“And a very, very difficult crisis for our country, and we will continue to do that, just as every government that is affected by this crisis around the world is continuing to do the same.”

There was no official comment following the meeting of the Covid operations committee of senior ministers on Tuesday, but Whitehall sources ahead of the talks suggested the measures could stop short of mandatory hotel quarantines for all arrivals.