One in every 55 people in England had Covid last week, a big jump compared to the week before.
The latest estimate from the Office for National Statistics warns that as many as 1,028,800 may have had coronavirus last week.
Two weeks ago one in 60 people in England were infected, meaning rates are rising rapidly.
At the peak of the second wave in early January, around one in 50 were estimated to have coronavirus.
The situation is even more stark in Wales, where 2.31% or one in every 43 people returned a positive test.
Northern Ireland and Scotland are doing much better, with 0.76% (one in 131) or 1.14% (one in 84) respectively.
Thankfully the effects of the Covid-19 vaccine has meant the link between cases and deaths is severely weakened.
Yesterday there were 66 Covid deaths in England.
This compares to more than 1,000 a day on average in January in the nation.
Across the UK there were 115 deaths yesterday, compared to a peak of more than 1,800 on one day in January.
The ONS said that prevalence of infections had risen for its fourth straight week in England, having been at 1 in 60 people in the previous week.
It is estimated that prevalence is at its highest since the week ending January 23, shortly after England entered its third national lockdown
When modelling the level of Covid-19 infections among different age ranges in England, the ONS said rates have increased in all age groups except for those aged 25 to 34, where the trend was uncertain.
The percentage of people testing positive remains highest for those in school years 7 to 11, at 7.8%, up week-on-week from 7.1%.
That means one in every 14 children in that age range had the bug in the week up to October 16.
That was up from estimated prevalence of 7.1% for the previous week, a figure which on Friday was revised down from 8.1% due to additional test results received since.
"The current trend of increasing positivity is unchanged by
The rapidly rising cases continues to put pressure on Westminster to bring in measures designed to stop the virus' spread.
On Wednesday Sajid Javid rebuffed calls to trigger England's 'Plan B' for Covid despite warning cases may hit 100,000 a day.
The Health Secretary repeated his warning from July that cases could reach the milestone after a surge in recent days.
Yet he said it was not yet time to make face masks compulsory again in some public spaces - or demand vaccine passports in nightclubs.
He told a No10 press conference it was right to hold back on Plan B, because pressure on the NHS isn't "unsustainable" yet.
That was despite the NHS Confederation begging for a "Plan B plus" to avoid the nation stumbling into a "winter crisis".
Some 8,142 Covid patients are in UK hospitals after a steady increase over the summer.
That number is slightly lower than mid-September, but Stephen Powis of NHS England warned: "I anticipate that over the next week or two that number will increase."
