The coronavirus outbreak is likely to become an annual occurrence, according to the Government's chief scientific officer.

As of Friday lunchtime, there were 798 confirmed cases in the UK and 10 Covid-19-related deaths and the disease has wiped out all professional football in the UK.

This could become something we have to get used to on a yearly basis, according to Sir Patrick Vallance, who told the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme: "What we don't want is everybody to end up getting it in a short period of time so that we swamp and overwhelm NHS services so that's the flattening of the peak.

"You can't stop it so that you should end up with a broader peak during which time you would anticipate that more people would get immunity to this and that in itself becomes a protective part of this process.

"And this is quite likely though to become an annual virus, an annual seasonal infection."

Countless sports fixtures have been called off - including Wales v Scotland in the Six Nations and England's Test cricket tour to Sri Lanka.

But experts have criticised Britain's "timid" response.

Dr Bharat Pankhania - senior consultant in communicable disease control at the University of Exeter told the BBC: "My view as an independent scientist is that the UK probably thinks it does not have as many cases as continental Europe.

"Or they are thinking that this will not become a large red flag as has happened in Northern Italy.

"My concerns are is that unless we keep a lid on it in the early stages then it is very difficult to contain it in later stages when we have so many more new cases being generated."

His comments were echoed by Dr Peter Drobac - an infectious disease specialist at Oxford University - who says Britain's measures are too timid.

He said: " What we seem to be seeing here in the UK is the Government seems to be thinking it can find a middle ground and slow things down enough so that it won't overwhelm the health system and that it won't go on for too long that it's going to be inconvenient.

"I don't see anybody else taking this approach and I do think it's a bit of a gamble."

The UK's chief scientific adviser said it is hoped the Government's approach to tackling coronavirus will create a "herd immunity" to the disease.

Sir Patrick said some of the social distancing measures put in place by the Government, including self-isolating for seven days if symptoms develop, are "actually quite extreme".

Government's approach is 'concerning', says Jeremy Hunt

Sir Patrick's comments come after former health secretary Jeremy Hunt questioned the Government's decision not to cancel large gatherings after Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned many more families would "lose loved ones before their time".

The Government's approach to tackling coronavirus is "concerning", former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has said as new measures to delay the spread of the virus come into effect.

Mr Hunt questioned the Government's decision not to cancel large gatherings after a stark warning from Prime Minister Boris Johnson that many more families would "lose loved ones before their time".

Asked on BBC Newsnight what he thought about the decision not to cancel large gatherings, Mr Hunt said: "I think it is surprising and concerning that we're not doing any of it at all when we have just four weeks before we get to the stage that Italy is at.

"You would have thought that every single thing we do in that four weeks would be designed to slow the spread of people catching the virus."