Government scientific advisors have cautioned against lifting lockdown too quickly over the summer as it could lead to a further 130,000 Covid-19 deaths by June 2022.
Scientists told the government's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty that the vaccine rollout could be "insufficient" to prevent another outbreak.
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) modelling subgroup SPI-M produced two papers on January 14 which were discussed during a meeting attended by both Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance, the Daily Mail reports.
One paper, by the team at the University of Warwick, looks into the repercussions of easing lockdown from the end of February to the start of September.