One in 55 people in England have the coronavirus - a number that hasn't changed in the last seven days despite lockdown.
The Office for National Statistics Infection Survey said an estimated one in 55 people in private households in England had Covid-19 between January 17 and 23.
They estimate the equivalent of 1.02 million people, or 1.9% of the population.
This is broadly unchanged on the previous estimate for last week - raising questions about how effective the current lock down is in containing the virus.
It comes in the week that the UK passed 100,000 Covid deaths and Boris Johnson extended lockdown by three weeks.
The Prime Minister's Official spokesman said: “The ONS stats have a different methodology to the case data we publish each day. Both remain useful for tracking the spread of the virus. We always consider the latest statistical and scientific evidence.”
“It remains the case that transmission rates of the virus are high.” Hospitalisations and deaths remain high too, he added.
The spokesman said the government need to see “long-term trends showing the virus is declining” before lockdown can be eased, but wouldn’t be drawn on dates or plans.
London continued to have the highest percentage of people testing positive with an estimated 2.71% of people infected.
For north-west England the latest estimate is one in 45 people, and for north-east England the estimate is one in 50.
The other estimates are one in 55 people in the West Midlands, one in 60 in eastern England and south-east England, one in 70 in the East Midlands and south-west England, and one in 85 for Yorkshire and the Humber.
But a slight silver lining showed that the percentage of cases that are compatible with the new variant dropped or remained stable in almost all regions of England.
But they increased in the East Midlands.
The picture on infections is similar across the UK.
In Wales, around one in 70 people had Covid-19 between January 17 and 23 – unchanged from the previous ONS estimate for January 10 to 16.
In Northern Ireland the ONS estimates around one in 50 people had Covid-19 between January 17 and 23, up slightly from one in 60 for January 10 to 16.
The estimate for Scotland is broadly unchanged, down slightly from around one in 100 people for January 10 to 16 to one in 110 for January 17 to 23.
