Covid infections are continuing to rise across England, with latest figures showing that cases are at their highest level for three months.
A total of 3.8 million people in UK households are estimated to have had Covid in the week up to July 13/14 according to the Office For National Statistics - an increase of 7% from 3.5 million in the previous seven days. 3.1 million of the estimated cases are in England, meaning that around one in 17 people is infected with the virus in the country.
The ONS has warned that it is currently “too early to say” if the recent wave is reaching its peak, due to “uncertain trends” in the latest data for the rest of the UK. Cases are estimated to be hitting similar levels of one in 17 in Wales and Northern Ireland, while in Scotland it’s thought that around one in 15 people has Covid.
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Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5 are driving the current surge in infections, which are said to be more contagious than previous variants. Another Omicron sub-variant, nicknamed ‘Centaurus’, has recently arrived in the UK and has been declared a “variant under monitoring” by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
While the number of Covid cases continues to rise, the number of hospital admissions appears to have stopped climbing. 13,375 people with Covid in England were in hospital on July 21, a number down 3% week-on-week that marks the second day in a row that total numbers have fallen.
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