New data suggests nearly 150,000 people on average in England were carrying coronavirus outside hospitals and care homes over a two-week period.
The figure was higher for people working in front-line healthcare roles, such as NHS staff and care workers.
Crucially, the official survey showed no difference in the rate of infection across any particular age group, including children.
Scientists worldwide racing to understand the new virus believe Covid-19 affects the elderly most severely - while studies have suggested young people may catch and spread it without ever noticing symptoms.
British authorities have urged over-70s, people with underlying health conditions and pregnant women to self-isolate during the country's lockdown.
The figures come as England relaxes some lockdown restrictions, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson urging those who can to return to work and announcing schools could reopen for a month before summer.
The new figures published today show an average of 148,000 people in England had Covid-19 between April 27 and May 10, according to the new official figures.
Out of the 10,705 participants in the Office for National Statistics (ONS) swab-testing analysis between 5,276 households, 33 people in 30 homes tested positive for Covid-19.
The figures do not include people in hospital or care homes where the statisticians said the infection rates are likely to be higher.
The fresh estimates show the equivalent of 0.27% of the population on average had coronavirus during that period.
The figures cover people in the wider community, not those tested in hospitals or care homes.
The ONS said its coronavirus infection survey found no evidence of differences in the proportions testing positive between the age categories 2 to 19, 20 to 49, 50 to 69 and 70 years and over.
The new data emerged the same day as the government announced Public Health England had approved an antibody test in a major breakthrough.
Pharmaceutical giant Roche's test has been given the green light, and will be rolled out to healthworkers first.
The tests can tell whether someone has already had coronavirus, rather than whether they have the illness presently.
The tests will be available once once an agreement on mass rollouts of the tests has been agreed, and eventually will be available to the wider public.
The Swiss company has said it could produce hundreds of thousands of its antibody tests a week.
The figures estimate 1.33% of those working in England in patient-facing healthcare roles, or resident-facing social care roles, tested positive for Covid-19 between April 27 and May 10.
This includes NHS professionals, such as nurses and doctors, as well as social care workers, such as nursing home or home care workers.
For those reporting not working in these roles, 0.22% tested positive.
The survey is designed to help track the current extent of infection and transmission of Covid-19 among England's community population - specifically private households, which is why the researchers excluded hospitals, care homes or other institutional settings.
The survey, produced by the ONS in partnership with the University of Oxford, the University of Manchester, Public Health England and the Wellcome Trust, shed insight into the rates of infection in the wider community.
The ONS is also running a bigger long-term study to track the spread of Covid-19 in the general population.
The wider study, which will include up to 300,000 people, includes antibody testing to help understand how many people have had Covid-19 in the past
