Covid-19 infection rates in the United Kingdom have dropped to their lowest level in nearly 11 months. Though not all parts of the UK are showing the clear downward trend.
According to Office for National Statistics (ONS), a total of 944,700 people in private households are estimated to have had coronavirus in the week to August 2. This is the first time the figure has fallen below a million since the beginning of June.
Infections hit 3.8 million in early July this year during the spread of the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the virus, but have been on a broadly downward path in recent weeks. At a national level, infections are continuing to fall in England and Wales while the trend is uncertain in Scotland and Northern Ireland, the ONS said.
In England, the percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus in the week to August 28 was 770,800, or around one in 70 - down from 893,300, or one in 60, in the seven days to August 23. Wales has seen infections fall to 31,500 people, or one in 95, down from 47,300, or one in 65.
In Scotland, 104,400 people were likely to have tested positive for Covid-19 in the latest week, the equivalent of about one in 50. This compares with 96,000, or one in 55, in the previous survey.
And in Northern Ireland, the latest estimate is 38,000, or one in 50 people, compared with 35,800, which was also one in 50. Infections are estimated to have fallen in all regions of England except eastern England, the East Midlands and the South East, where the trend is described by the ONS as uncertain.
All age groups in England are likely to have seen a fall in the prevalence of the virus except people from school Year 12 to age 24, and those aged 70 and over, where the trend is again uncertain.
