By New stats show Covid levels starting to fall in the UK
According to the Office for National Statistics, the number of people in the UK infected with coronavirus is falling.
In the week up to 9 April, about 4.4 million people had the virus, down from nearly 4.9 million the week before.
That’s about one in 15 people testing positive for the virus.
The study, which uses its own testing, gives the clearest indication of the virus’s spread since free testing ended in England.
Thousands of people are tested at random regadless of if they have symptoms or not to give an accurate reading of how many people have the virus in their body.
Despite the 10% drop recorded by the ONS, the number infected still remains high.
The BA.2 form of the Omicron variant helped push up the number infected with the virus to record levels in recent weeks.
Sarah Crofts, from the ONS, said: “Across most parts of the UK, infections have thankfully begun to decrease.
“It is too early to say if we have passed the peak of infections, and infections overall remain high.”
Rates of Covid are falling in most of England, but are still climbing in north-east England, which now has the highest rates in any part of the UK.
The overall drop will be a welcome development as the NHS is under intense pressure.
A record 6.2 million people are waiting for routine NHS treatment.
A&E departments are under intense strain, with only 71% of patients seen, treated and then admitted or discharged in under four hours, compared with 87% in March 2019.
However, the number of people being admitted to hospital with Covid across the UK is starting to fall.
The figures had risen from about 1,100 a day in mid-February to nearly 2,400 by the end of March. It has since dropped to about 2,250 a day.
