England's Covid R rate has fallen to between an estimated 0.8 and 1.0, health officials said on Friday - as it emerged one in 60 in the country have Covid.
An R number between 0.8 and 1.0 means that, on average, every 10 people infected will infect between eight and 10 others.
The R number in England was estimated to have been between 0.9 and 1.1 last week - showing a slight decrease.
The latest numbers come after it was revealed one in 60 people in England had Covid-19 last week - as infections fell below January levels for the first time in several weeks.
Weekly data from the Office for National Statistics show the proportion of people with the virus in private households in England decreased in the week to November 6.
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An estimated 925,400 people had Covid-19 during this period, equating to around one in 60 people, the ONS said.
This compares to one in 50 people over the previous two week s, and one in 55 people the week before.
At the start of the year, infections peaked at around one in 50 as country battled the second wave of the virus.
Covid rates have fallen in all age groups except for those from school year 12 to age 24 and for people aged 35 to 49, where the trend is uncertain, the ONS said.
Secondary school pupils still have the highest infection rates in the country on 4.8% compared to 7.5% in the last week of October.
Infection rates also appeared to be falling across all regions, except for the East Midlands where there were early signs of an increase.
Wales continued to report the highest Covid rate in the UK with one in 45 people estimated to have the virus.
However last week's figures were an improvement on the end of October when one in 40 were infected - the highest figure since estimates began in July 2020.
In Northern Ireland, around one in 75 people were believed to have Covid, down from one in 65 the previous week and below the record high of one in 40 in mid-August.
For Scotland, the latest estimate is one in 85, down from one in 80 the previous week and below September's peak of one in 45.
And, on Thursday, it emerged that, of the 377 local areas in the UK, 55 (15%) have seen a week-on-week rise in rates, 321 (85%) have seen a fall and one is unchanged, ONS data shows.
The Orkney Islands in Scotland have the highest rate with 157 new cases in the seven days to November 7, the equivalent of 700.9 per 100,000 people.
This is up from 468.8 in the seven days to October 31.
Vale of Glamorgan in Wales has the second highest rate, down from 765.0 to 637.9, with 863 new cases.
Torfaen in Wales has the third highest rate, down from 762.4 to 623.2, with 591 new cases.
Copeland in Cumbria has the highest rate in England (579.1) and Fermanagh & Omagh has the highest rate in Northern Ireland (548.0).
