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They also urged ministers to “stop gaslighting the public” and be honest about the intense strain on services that are allegedly closer to breaking point than at any other stage in the past half-century.

A joint editorial from the editors of two eminent UK medical journals blamed the situation on a decade of underfunding, failure to address chronic staff shortages and a lack of reform for social care services.

Kamran Abbasi, of The British Medical Journal, and Alastair McLellan, of the Health Service Journal, wrote: “At no other time in the past 50 years have so many parts of the NHS been so close to ceasing to function effectively.”

“The heart of the problem is the failure to recognise that the pandemic is far from over and that a return to some of the measures taken in the past two years is needed.”

One in 19 people in England had Covid in the week to July 6, revealed the Office for National Statistics.

Infections jumped in the UK by nearly 800,000 in a week, with some parts of the country nearing the record levels seen during the spring.

Around 14,000 Covid-positive patients are in hospitals in England, hindering efforts to tackle the mammoth treatment backlog.

Mr Abbasi and Mr McLellan said that 2022 was supposed to be “the year of full speed recovery” but yesterday may have been the “most difficult day the NHS has ever experienced”. They said predictions about getting services back on track had relied on hope Covid would cause far fewer problems until the winter.

Weekly hospital admissions for patients with Covid have instead averaged around 9,000 for the first six months of the year. Mr Abbasi and Mr McLellan accused ministers of ignoring the crisis and called for Covid-control regulations.

These should include mask wearing in healthcare settings and on public transport and free tests while other measures might include working from home and restrictions on some gatherings.

A Government spokesman said: “We’re making good progress on cutting waiting times and our community diagnostic centres are delivering over a million tests and scans to beat Covid backlogs.”

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