The Omicron variant continues to surge throughout the UK - but experts believe it will soon peak with rates already falling in certain areas.
Britain saw a record high of Covid cases on January 4 with 218,724, the worst since the virus reached our shores in early 2020.
And while they still remain high, numbers have been dropping since then, with the likes of London seemingly already having peaked.
Data shows cases are falling fastest among the 18-35 age range but those older than that are continuing to see surges.
ZOE Covid Study app scientist and reader at King’s College London, Dr Claire Steves, says: “It’s good news that the number of daily new cases has slowed for now.
“However, it’s worrying to see cases increasing in the over 75 age group. This is the group we need to protect as they are the most likely to be hospitalised as a result of a Covid infection.”
While the latest wave seems to be slowing in the UK, Omicron is now sweeping across Europe.
More than half of Europe's population are expected to be infected with the variant within the next six to eight weeks, the World Health Organization's top Europe official said.
Europe saw more than seven million new cases in the first week of 2022, more than doubling over a two-week period, the WHO's Europe director Hans Kluge told a news briefing.
England
Covid cases appear to have peaked in London over New Year's Eve.
Yesterday, figures showed the daily number of people testing positive in the capital was 15,235, this is less than half the city's highest count of 33,136 on December 29.
The most recent week of complete data (December 30, 2021 - January 5), showed 151,223 new cases were identified in London - a rate of 1,680 cases per 100,000 population.
This compares with 160,277 cases and a rate of 1,780 the previous week.
Professor Kevin Fenton, Public Health England’s regional director for London, told Sky News: “We think we may have passed or are at the peak.”
He added: “Data from the ONS [Office for National Statistics] suggests that the peak may have occurred at or just about New Year period and we’re seeing reductions in overall case rates across the city and the prevalence of infections within the community.”
The capital is thought to be up to three weeks ahead of the rest of England which has continued to see a week on week rise overall.
England as a whole saw 1,053,451 new cases in the latest weekly data - 1,863 cases per 100,000 population . This compares with 865,003 cases and a rate of 1,530 for the previous week.
The North East and North West of England appears to have replaced the capital as the epicentre of Omicron, with several hospital trusts launching critical incidents.
Scotland
Scotland had some of the worst Covid rates in the UK at the end of last year, data shows.
The nation's infection rate soared above England's as Omicron continued to spread through the country.
A Scottish Government report says cases of the new variant could peak this week.
Daily infections could hit 70,000 on Thursday or Friday before dropping to around 20,000 by the end of the month.
ONS statistics claim one in 20 people have the virus in Scotland.
Respiratory research expert Professor James Chalmers warned that although cases may peak this month, the number of hospitalisations will continue to rise.
The professor, of the University of Dundee’s School of Medicine, told the BBC : "We can expect this month to see a peak in the number of cases, and the number of hospitalisations to peak around the same time as they did last year, which is towards the end of January.
“So although it feels like there is a huge number of cases in Scotland at the moment, and hospitalisations have doubled in the course of the week, we’re still at a relatively early stage of this.
“We’ve got probably a week to 10 days of case growth and then a couple of weeks of increases in hospitalisations still to get through.”
Scotland recorded its highest ever daily total of new Covid cases on January 3 when 20,217 infections were logged.
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland currently has the worst infection rate in the UK.
Covid cases increased by 3,420 today and were up by 33,666 over the past seven days, bringing the total infections in the country to 466,290.
The country is on track to reach the peak of its latest Covid wave in the next couple of weeks, according to its Chief Medical Officer.
Sir Michael McBride told BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme: “I think the true peak we’re likely to see in the next couple of weeks, the next one-two weeks.
“I think the numbers will be much higher than we’re actually reporting and are much higher than we’re currently reporting.
“It’s important to bear in mind that hospital pressures continue to increase and we will see pressures there peak towards the latter end of January and into early February."
Earlier this month, Northern Ireland's chief scientific adviser Professor Ian Young, of Queen's University Belfast, said one in 10 people in some parts of the country had the virus.
He said the risk of catching Covid was 'considerably higher' than it had ever been.
The professor added that nearly 12% of the total number of infections of the pandemic were reported over a seven-day period.
Health Minister Robin Swann warned that Omicron had brought an 'unprecedented surge'.
Wales
Welsh leaders are still not confident Wales has reached the peak of its latest wave, despite falling Covid infection rates.
The rates have been tumbling for several days after peaking on January 2, with data from Welsh hospitals also showing the number of Covid patients in ICU dropping.
However there are still more Covid patients in general hospital beds and health minister Eluned Morgan said it was too early to say if Wales was past the peak.
She said: "There are variables that have come in. First of all, the way we measure the number of people with Covid has changed.
"We are telling people who have had a lateral flow test who are not symptomatic not to bother with a PCR test, that could have dampened down the numbers of people coming forward.
"We've seen the return of schools and we're yet to see if that is to make a difference to the figures.
"The waste water monitoring we carry out suggests, if anything, the rates are climbing.
"We want to keep an eye on the situation for the time being but it is too early to say whether we've reach the peak yet but there's certainly some positive news out there, some positive data but I think it's too early to say."
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Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford told Sky's Trevor Phillips the latest wave should have a rapid decline once it has peaked.
"There is a little bit of good news in that the modelling we have shows a very steep rise in Omicron cases," he said.
"We're not at the top of that wave yet but once we get to the top, the modelling shows a relatively rapid decline from that peak as well.
"As soon as we are in a position to see the peak past and the position improving, of course we will want to revert to the far more modest level of protections we had in place only a few weeks ago.
"We're hopeful that the level of protections we currently have in place will be sufficient to mitigate the impact of Omicron to help our NHS to deal with the astonishing pressures which it's having to deal with every day."
