The anticipation is palpable. In just over a fortnight, Britain will begin to spring back to life. Pub gardens will bustle and the pavements outside restaurants will be transformed for continental-style alfresco dining.

Gyms will throw open their doors, hairdressers will be ready to get to work on the nation's lockdown locks. And, as Chancellor Rishi Sunak indicated on Thursday, working from home will start to end. No doubt, employers will be bending over backward to stay 'Covid-safe'. This will mean employing measures from enforced mask-wearing and social distancing, to regular testing and enhanced cleaning regimes – much of which is now a legal requirement.

Debate continues to rage about the introduction of Covid immunity passports –proving an individual has had their jab.

But one practice, which does seem to have quietly become a mainstay of pandemic life, is proving just as controversial – in scientific circles at least.

Last year, scores of businesses, from fitness facilities and salons to pubs, restaurants and offices, required anyone who entered to have their temperature taken.

A fever is one of the three officially recognised signs of Covid-19, along with a cough and a loss of taste and smell.

The theory is that if you weed out those running even a mild temperature, you pick up hidden Covid cases. Those with a temperature above a normal 37 degrees must then isolate and take a test, removing them from the environment and curbing the spread of infection.