A microbiologist says he feels "exasperation" and "disbelief" at the lifting of most coronavirus restrictions in England.
Prof Alan McNally, from the University of Birmingham, said with case numbers rising it would put more strain on testing infrastructure.
He said there was a "feeling of exasperation and disbelief in the infectious disease community".
The government said it would urge people to continue to act responsibly.
"We've fought a really hard campaign for the last 18 months against herd immunity... but they've gone ahead with it. None of us can believe it," Prof McNally said. slot
He said with the easing of restrictions driving case numbers up, "it's going to put much more strain on testing infrastructure that it's not capable of dealing with".
According to government figures, the number of people testing positive for coronavirus is the highest since January. But there are signs the testing system is struggling to return results in 24 hours.
In the most recent week, 63% of in-person tests were received within 24 hours, compared to nearly 77% (76.9%) in the previous week.
The median turnaround time for home tests has increased from 45 to 56 hours. The turnaround time for tests at centres has increased from 39 to 49 hours.
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