Original title: pound sterlingThe popularity has risen to a three-year high, and experts warn that Britain is in the early stage of the third wave of the epidemic.

The pound continued to rise on Monday, rising to a three-year high in early trading on Tuesday.

Hopes of vaccine-driven economic growth boosted sterling against the dollar in Asia on TuesdayAt one point, it rose 0.3% to 1.4248, breaking the peak in February and rising to the highest level since April 2018, with a year-to-date increase of 4.2%, of which it rose 2.8% in May, the second month in a row.

The pound is being driven higher by two major drivers.

Traders are betting that the UK economic recovery will gain momentum with the launch of the COVID-19 vaccine.

According to available data, at the current vaccination rate, 3/4 of the UK population will be vaccinated with two doses within a month. Analyst Toshiya Yamauchi said the pound was favored because progress in vaccination brought the UK closer to economic normalisation than other countries and the pound and the US dollar were expected to move towards the level of 1.45.

The improved growth outlook has also fuelled speculation that the Bank of England will join Canada and New Zealand in signalling that interest rates may start to rise next year.

Overnight index swaps show a 46% chance that the Bank of England will raise its benchmark interest rate by August 2022, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Alvin T. Tan, strategist at Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets (RBC Capital Markets) in Hong Kong, said:

"the UK's economic recovery and rising expectations that the Bank of England will end asset purchases and interest rate hikes are driving bullish bets on sterling."

Expert: there are signs that Britain is in the early stages of the third wave of the epidemic

British authorities plan to fully open up the economy on June 21, although the highly contagious Indian mutated virus remains a big risk.

Scientists who advise the government on medical advice say there are signs that the UK is in the early stages of a third wave of COVID-19, according to British media reports.

Lavendra Gupta, a professor of virology and clinical microbiology at the University of Cambridge in the UK, said that although the overall number of new cases of novel coronavirus in the UK was "relatively low",First of all, the situation of mutated virus infection in India has shown a trend of "exponential growth".。

Professor Gupta pointed out thatBritain has entered the early stage of the third wave of COVID-19 's epidemic, and at least 3/4 of the cases are infected with mutated viruses found for the first time in India.. Professor Gupta explained:

"of course, the current number of infections is still relatively small compared with the previous two outbreaks, but the peaks of the previous two outbreaks were also caused by a small number of individual cases of infection, so the key here is that we have seen early signs of another large-scale outbreak."

He stressed that the current high proportion of adults vaccinated by COVID-19 in the UK means that this outbreak may take longer than in the past. He also called for:

"there may be a wrong sense of security for some time, which is something we should pay special attention to."

Gupta insisted that the government should postpone the decision to further lift the blockade of COVID-19 epidemic prevention in England on June 21.

According to the Johns Hopkins University website, the cumulative number of confirmed cases in the UK is about 4.48 million, with 3111 new confirmed cases on the 30th. At present, the number of confirmed cases in the UK has increased by more than 3000 for five consecutive days, especially 4028 new confirmed cases on the 28th, the highest number of infections since April 12.

However, Prime Minister Johnson said there was no decisive reason to delay lifting the blockade.