Covid cases continue to fall as infection rate drops to level last seen in early October
Coronavirus cases in the UK continue to fall, according to latest government data, with infection rates at a low last seen in early October.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) found in the week ending February 27, just one in every 220 people in England had coronavirus.
This is around a quarter of the levels seen at the start of this year, when infection rates reached record highs.
ITV News Correspondent Dan Rivers explains the latest ONS data showing falling Covid cases across the UK
The percentage of people continued to decrease in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, the data showed.
Infection levels also dropped across all age groups except in children school years 7 to 11, where trends remain uncertain.
Sarah Crofts, Senior Statistician for the Covid-19 Infection Survey, said: “Infections continue to head in the right direction across the UK, with levels now similar to what we saw in early October and around a quarter of levels seen at the start of the year.
“Today we have published new charts that show how infections have varied across ages over time, giving us unparalleled insight into how people of different ages have shown different levels of infection.
“For example, we can see they’ve dropped in over 70s in England, potentially as a result of the vaccine rollout.
“We will continue to monitor how different variants may impact the trend the UK is seeing in declining infection rates.”
What does the data show us across the home nations?
In England, it is estimated that 248,100 people within the community population in England had Covid-19, which equates to around 1 in 220 people.
In Wales, it is estimated 10,600 people had Covid-19, equating to around 1 in 285 people
In Northern Ireland, 5,700 people are estimated to have had Covid-19, which is around 1 in every 325 people.
In Scotland, around 15,600 people are thought to have had Covid-19. This equates to 1 in 335 people.
England’s regional breakdown
In the week ending February 27, the North East overtook London as the area which had the highest percentage of people testing positive for Covid-19.
Infections decreased in all regions, except for the North East, East Midlands and East of England where the trend is uncertain.
The ONS data is an estimate for current cases in the community, including asymptomatic cases. The data does not measure the number of cases in care homes, hospitals and other institutional settings.
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