Covid levels continued to crumble in England last week, falling to their lowest levels since the start of December before Omicron took off.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates 1.2million, or one in 45
It marks the fifth week in a row that the ONS’ weekly infection survey — now the best barometre of the outbreak — has reported a week-on-week fall in cases, despite no Covid restrictions being in place.
The Government is relying on the study, based on swabs of 120,000 random people, to track the virus now that free testing has been axed for the vast majority of Britons.
Today’s estimate for England is the lowest since the week ending December 16, when 1.2m people were also estimated to have been infected.
At that point, the Omicron strain was just starting to take off and in the following weeks there were mounting calls to follow some EU countries in enforcing another lockdown.
Ministers also resisted renewed calls from NHS bosses for tougher restrictions last month when the BA.2 variant, an off-shoot of Omicron, pushed rates to record-highs.
Meanwhile, the ONS estimates one in 35 people were carrying Covid in Wales and Scotland last week and one in 55 in Northern Ireland.
Sarah Crofts, head of analytical outputs for the COVID-19 Infection Survey, said: ‘It is encouraging to see infections continuing to decrease across the UK, with rates now at their lowest since mid-December.
‘In England while infections are around a third of the level seen a month ago, rates do remain high overall. I want to thank all of our participants for their continued dedication to this vital piece of surveillance.’