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The UK has just recorded more new coronavirus cases in a single day than Australia has had the entire pandemic — and yet the country is just days away from ditching the last of its lockdown measures.

On Friday, Britain reported more than 51,000 new coronavirus cases, the highest daily total since January.

Australia has had 31,632 cases since the pandemic began, 107 of those in the last 24-hour reporting period during which Sydney and Melbourne are in lockdown.

READ MORE: England to lift last virus restrictions on July 19

Globally, the World Health Organisation says cases and deaths are climbing after a period of decline, spurred by the more contagious Delta variant. Last week there were nearly three million new infections and more than 55,000 lives lost around the world.

Against that backdrop, millions in the UK eagerly await Monday — dubbed by some as "Freedom Day" — when the last of the nation's long-lasting lockdown restrictions are finally eased.

But British politicians' talk of freedom in the months leading up to Monday has been replaced with words of caution.

RELATED: Johnson says restrictions to ease, UK must live with virus

"This pandemic is not over," Prime Minister Boris Johnson said this week.

"We cannot simply revert instantly from Monday the 19th of July to life as it was before COVID."

Hospital numbers could get 'quite scary'

The British government's top medical adviser warned on Friday that the number of people hospitalised with COVID-19 could hit "quite scary" levels within weeks.

Infections have surged in recent weeks, mainly among unvaccinated younger people, as a result of the far more contagious Delta variant and the continued easing of lockdown restrictions.

Despite the increase, the British government plans Monday to lift all remaining legal restrictions on social contact in England and to ditch social distancing guidelines as well as the legal requirement for people to wear masks in most indoor settings, including shops, trains, buses and subways.

The government is hoping that the rapid rollout of vaccines will keep a lid on the number of people becoming seriously ill — a stance that some leading international scientists at an "emergency international summit" critiqued as "reckless".

The group, which includes advisers to the governments of Italy, New Zealand and Taiwan, said they joined forces through a "sense of urgency" to warn of the global consequences of allowing the delta variant to spread rapidly through the British population.

The scientists warned that the combination of high infection prevalence and high levels of vaccination "create the conditions in which an immune escape variant is most likely to emerge."

One of the co-signatories to Friday's statement, Dr. William A. Haseltine of the New York-based think tank Access Health International, went further, describing the strategy as "murderous" and "unconscionable."

Families representing many of those who have died from COVID-19 in the UK also joined in the criticism of the Conservative government's plan.

"The overwhelming scientific consensus is that lifting restrictions on Monday will be disastrous, and bereaved families know firsthand how tragic the consequences of unlocking too early can be," said Jo Goodman, co-founder of COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice. "There is a real fear that once again the government's thinking is being driven by what's popular rather than the interests of the country."

Other parts of the UK — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — are taking more cautious steps out of lockdown.

So far, the number of people in hospitals with virus-related illnesses and subsequently dying remains relatively low, certainly when compared with the peak of the second wave of the pandemic earlier this year.

But with the government putting the country on notice that daily case numbers could rise to over 100,000 sometime this summer, concerns are clearly growing. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has sought to rein in any euphoria around Monday's lifting of restrictions, an occasion tagged "Freedom Day" on social media.

Johnson is urging people to remain vigilant when meeting with others and to carry on wearing masks in enclosed and crowded places.

His chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, told a webinar hosted by London's Science Museum late Thursday that the UK is "not out of the woods yet".

"I don't think we should underestimate the fact that we could get into trouble again surprisingly fast," Whitty said.

More cases will inevitably lead to more people requiring hospital attention even though the vaccine rollout has helped build a wall of immunity around those deemed to be the most vulnerable to disease. More than two-thirds of British adults have received both doses of a vaccine, and almost 88 per cent have had one dose.

Friday's government data showed 3964 people hospitalised with COVID-19, the most since late March. Though the number has gone up steadily in recent weeks, it remains far lower than at the height of the second wave in January, when hospitals had around 40,000 COVID-19 patients admitted.

https://twitter.com/PHE_uk/status/1416051516692209669?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Alongside the increase in hospitalisations, daily virus-related deaths have risen to levels not seen since March. Another 49 virus-related deaths were recorded Friday, taking the UK's total to 128,642, the seventh-highest in the world.

Government medical adviser Whitty warned that the number of people in hospitals with COVID-19 is doubling about every three weeks and could reach "quite scary numbers" if the current trend continues.

"We are not by any means out of the woods yet on this. We are in much better shape due to the vaccine program, and drugs and a variety of other things," he said.

"But this has got a long way to run in the UK, and it's got even further to run globally," he added.

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Victorian authorities are hoping they can nip the current coronavirus outbreak in the bud with the snap five-day lockdown that kicked off on Friday.

It's the state's fifth lockdown since the pandemic began and Premier Daniel Andrews is hoping his go hard, go early strategy means avoiding a repeat of last year's "winter of misery", keeping this lockdown as short as possible.

However, the "fleeting transmission" among the state's 26 cases is causing concerns as contact tracers race to find all close contacts and exposure sites linked to cluster that developed from the Sydney removalists.

While all of Friday's new cases were linked to the cluster, there is concern over the fleeting transmission of cases at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Victoria's COVID-19 response commander, Jeroen Weimar, said the cases had no other link besides the outdoor venue, where they'd all watched the Carlton v Geelong AFL match.

"The four individuals identified today who were at the MCG again, they did not know each other, did not sit directly with each other, did not know the index case or his friend," Mr Weimar said.

RELATED: Mental health package coming for Victorians in lockdown

"And again, we're back in the world of very fleeting transmission occurring in that environment."

While the swell in numbers could see the lockdown extended for metropolitan parts of the state, Mr Andrews said he hadn't ruled out allowing regional Victorians an early exit from the current restrictions.

READ MORE: When will Victoria's lockdown end?

There are now more than 155 exposure sites across Victoria as of Friday night, ranging from shops to schools and stadiums. And there are 6500 contacts have been identified — 1500 close contacts and 5000 secondary contacts.

As a result of the increasing numbers, Victorians will face new border restrictions as of today.

The NSW government issued a statement late last night announcing that anyone travelling to NSW who has been in Victoria as of 12.01am on Saturday will be required to follow the stay-at-home rules.

There is an exception for those in the border regions. Residents do not have to follow the stay-at-home rules if the only place they have been in Victoria is in the border region.

https://twitter.com/NSWHealth/status/1416034754260992002?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

READ MORE: WA puts up hard border with Victoria

While there are a limited number of reasons Victorians are allowed to leave their homes this weekend, getting their COVID-19 vaccination is one of them.

And the premier is urging those who are eligible to get their jabs, with an extra 12,000 doses of Pfizer available over the next 10 days, in addition to the supply of AstraZeneca available.

Sydney is on edge to see how much its coronavirus outbreak has grown again overnight as the government holds crisis meetings to decide stricter measures to strengthen its struggling lockdown.

There were 97 new cases on Friday — of those, 29 were infectious while in the community, and that is the number paralysing the city as the Delta variant of the virus stubbornly digs in.

"There's no doubt that the numbers aren't where we'd like them," Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

READ MORE: Crisis meetings over tougher new COVID-19 restrictions in Sydney

In the last 10 days, cases in the community have not dropped, so harsher restrictions are almost a certainty.

"It has been conceded by the government that the current lockdown is not doing the job it needs to, so they will go harder," 9News political reporter Chris O'Keefe said on Friday night.

"A few of the options are shutting retail across Greater Sydney and forbidding certain types of work, otherwise a more localised lockdown of the Fairfield area going as far as having police checkpoints and cameras which can read number plates, fining people if they leave the area."

READ MORE: Regional NSW town on high alert after COVID-19 cases visit

After three weeks of lockdown, the shape of Sydney's COVID-19 outbreak has morphed, with authorities trying to decide on whether new rules will be ultra-local or broader to encapsulate the entire city.

"We know where the virus is concentrated, we know the type of situations where it's being transmitted … but we need to make sure any measures that are put in place are going to hit the mark, are going to do the job," Ms Berejiklian said.

She said "we all think we need to do more, all of us, collectively".

Bondi cluster grows beyond 1000

Sydney's current cluster of the Delta variant of COVID-19 has now grown beyond 1000 community cases since it began spreading one month ago.

Ms Berejiklian described Friday's figures as "concerning", with the percentage of people infectious while in the community continuing to rise.

"I can't stress to the community enough my absolute concern that we need to work harder at reducing mobility and reduce our interactions with others if we will bring the situation under control," she said.

https://twitter.com/NSWHealth/status/1415838782989893635?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The results follow a huge testing push in Sydney's south-west, the current epicentre of the outbreak.

There were 77,587 tests, up by almost 20,000 the previous day.

READ MORE: All 'major arterial roads out of Sydney' watched in police crackdown

"I am assuming because we had, in the last 24 hours, at least 29 of those 97 cases were infectious in the community, the numbers tomorrow will be greater than what we saw today," Ms Berejiklian said.

"We have never ever been afraid of taking the difficult decisions to make our community safe.

"It will be based on the health advice."

However, Ms Berejiklian expressed doubt about the necessity of requiring masks outdoors.

"To date, we don't know of anybody who has transmitted or received the virus while they are exercising," she said.

But Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said people need to have a mask with them whenever they leave the house and wear them while waiting for a takeaway coffee or in similar circumstances.

Fairfield in Sydney's south-west remains the hardest-hit region, with roughly 75 per cent of new cases.

Other areas of concern include Bayside, Campbelltown, Camden, Lakemba, Fairfield, Liverpool, Cumberland, Mt Druitt, Rooty Hill, the Sutherland Shire and the Georges River area.