The epicentre of the UK's current Covid-19 outbreak has moved to the North West of England from London as more older people are being admitted to hospital, according to new data.
The UK Health Security Agency's (UKHSA) latest report also shows the number of people going for their booster jabs is slowing in every age group.
It is not clear if these figures are from Christmas or if this is a new trend.
Today's alarming figures show a steep rise in the number of over 85s being admitted to hospitals.
Furthermore, hospitalisations of that age group have doubled from 62 in every 100,000 leading up to Christmas to 121 just a week later.
There is also a sharp increase for the 75-84s age group from 28 to 57 per 100,000.
Meanwhile, rates in younger people were lower and rising more slowly.
It comes 15 NHS hospitals declared 'critical incident's this week as the number of people going is overwhelming services across the country.
Boris Johnson also confirmed that no further lockdown restrictions would be introduced, but plan-B measures would remain in place for a further three weeks.
However, he did warn that the NHS in England was moving to a "war footing" - and acknowledged the health service is under "huge pressure".
Today's figures from UKHSA show the North West is reporting a high number of infections, including the Lake District and the area containing Liverpool and Manchester.
Cases are also high in the North East of England and North East London.
The UKHSA has also released data on the number of people who have been re-infected.
In the week ending on January 2, it said there were "59,783 possible reinfections identified in provisional figures".
The latest report looks at flu as well, adding: "laboratory indicators suggest that influenza activity is very low".
Yesterday, the UK hit its highest level of hospitalisations since February 17, 2021.
There were 2,258 new patients admitted to UK hospitals with Covid across the past 24 hours.
Government figures published for Wednesday confirmed a further 194,747 new Covid-19 cases today, with worries growing over the number of people having to isolate and miss work.
The figures also confirmed 334 people died within 28 days of a positive test.
It is a massive 696 per cent increase on yesterday's deaths and a 586 per cent increase on the 57 deaths recorded Wednesday last week (December 29).
A total of 15,659 patients are in hospital with Covid in England - a figure that's up 49 per cent week-on-week.
