Pictures showing thousands of jubilant England fans leaving Wembley Stadium on Wednesday night have prompted concerns about the spread of Covid-19.

Following England's spectacular 2-1 defeat of Denmark, thousands of fans spilled out onto the street where they were packed in like sardines, as can be seen in pictures from after the game.

Many took to social media on Thursday to share their concern at the scenes, pointing out that the majority of people seen in the crowd did not appear to be wearing face masks.

It comes amid further warnings from health officials this week about the implications of fully easing lockdown restrictions amid a continuing spike in cases of the Delta variant of Covid-19 across the UK.

Professor Andrew Hayward, from University College London and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), which advises ministers, said it is “still very important” to try to control the Delta variant and ask close contacts to isolate.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If we abandon general population social distancing measures as a means of control, then we will very likely see a massive peak of infections and, whilst the vaccines are excellent, they’re not perfect.

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“And so, if we get to a very small percentage of a massive number of cases getting hospitalised, that’s still a very large number, and it risks putting unsustainable pressure on the NHS whilst it’s dealing with a huge backlog of cases, so it is important to still not give up on control.”

He said cases are “increasing very sharply” but added that contact tracing is “a highly imperfect system” and the “key thing is the human discussion with somebody who has Covid to identify who their contacts are, and to ask them to isolate as well”.

The chief executive of NHS Providers warned of the risks of easing restrictions this month.

There are risks to the NHS if England eases coronavirus restriction this month, the chief executive of NHS Providers said.

Chris Hopson told BBC Radio 4: “We need to be realistic and we need to be open and honest about the fact that there are risks if we relax these restrictions and there will be consequences.

“The NHS won’t be able to do everything given the demand pressures it has got and the fact that we have got reduced capacity in terms of both beds and staff numbers.”

He said there would be “very significant” pressure on the NHS and “we will have to dial back on elective recovery”.