Hundreds of scientists have written to the government urging immediate “more restrictive measures” be brought in to enforce social distancing, following the action plan it announced on Thursday.

The 245 UK people supporting the open letter include scientists from a wide range of departments, while it is also backed by 29 international signatories.

The letter says: “In particular, we are deeply preoccupied by the timeline of the proposed plan, which aims at delaying social distancing measures even further. The current data about the number of infections in the UK is in line with the growth curves already observed in other countries, including Italy, Spain, France, and Germany. The same data suggests that the number of infected will be in the order of dozens of thousands within a few days.

“Under unconstrained growth, this outbreak will affect millions of people in the next few weeks. This will most probably put the NHS at serious risk of not being able to cope with the flow of patients needing intensive care, as the number of ICU beds in the UK is not larger than that available in other neighbouring countries with a similar population.”

The letter continues: “Going for ‘herd immunity’ at this point does not seem a viable option, as this will put the NHS at an even stronger level of stress, risking many more lives than necessary.

“By putting in place social distancing measures now, the growth can be slowed down dramatically, and thousands of lives can be spared.

“We consider the social distancing measures taken insufficient, and we believe that additional and more restrictive measures should be taken immediately, as it is already happening in other countries across the world. We urge anyone who has sympathy with our views, and access to the government strategy group, to make our concerns more widely known.”

The list of academics signing the letter includes professors, lecturers and researchers in fields including immunology, biology and medicine and complex systems, from universities including Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the Francis Crick Institute.