New daily Covid cases have risen above 100,000 again on the day Boris Johnson announced restrictions will be eased - with more than 350 lives lost.
Figures released by the Department of Health show a further 108,069 people tested positive in 24 hours, while 359 people died from Covid.
Yesterday saw the highest daily death toll in 11 months announced, with 438 fatalities.
A week ago there were 129,587 cases, while a fortnight ago there were an enormous 194,747 confirmed infections.
Today's figures mean 652,469 people have tested positive for Covid in the past seven days, a 32 per cent week-on-week drop.
This afternoon the under-fire Prime Minister - who faces a rebellion within his own party and was rocked by the defection of MP Christian Wakeford - said Plan B measures will be dropped.
Mr Johnson told MPs that more than 90 per cent of over 60s in the UK have received a booster jab, while scientists believe the latest wave has peaked.
People will no longer be told to work from home and, from Thursday next week when Plan B measures lapse, mandatory Covid passes will end, he said.
The legal requirement for people who test positive for Covid to self-isolate will also be allowed to lapse when the regulations expire on March 24.
When it comes to face masks, the Government will no longer make people wear them anywhere from next Thursday and they will be scrapped in classrooms from this Thursday, with school communal areas to follow.
Mr Johnson signalled his intention to start treating Covid-19 more like flu, saying: "There will soon come a time when we can remove the legal requirement to self-isolate altogether, just as we don't place legal obligations on people to isolate if they have flu.
"As Covid becomes endemic, we will need to replace legal requirements with advice and guidance, urging people with the virus to be careful and considerate of others."
The bonfire of Covid regulations could help appease Mr Johnson's Tory critics at a time when the Prime Minister has been under pressure over Downing Street parties.
It comes after Covid infection levels fell in most parts of the UK for the first time since early December, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Mr Johnson said this data showed that while there are some places where cases are likely to continue rising, including in primary schools, "our scientists believe it is likely that the Omicron wave has now peaked nationally".
He added: "There remain, of course, significant pressures on the NHS across our country, and especially in the North East and North West, but hospital admissions which were doubling every nine days just two weeks ago have now stabilised, with admissions in London even falling.
"The numbers in intensive care not only remain low but are actually also falling."
On the use of face masks going forward, Mr Johnson said: "In the country at large, we will continue to suggest the use of face coverings in enclosed or crowded spaces, particularly when you come into contact with people you don't normally meet, but we will trust the judgment of the British people and no longer criminalise anyone who chooses not to wear one."
Downing Street later said the Government's scientific advisers had "no objection to the approach taken" in ditching England's Plan B.
Asked if the Sage panel had advised the Government to maintain mandatory mask-wearing, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "No, we are not receiving advice from the CMO (chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty) and CSA (chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance) to keep that in place."
The ONS data shows that one in 20 people in private households in England is estimated to have had coronavirus in the week to January 15.
That's around three million people nationally, down from 3.7 million in the week to January 6.
In Scotland, around one in 20, or 236,000 people, is estimated to have had Covid-19 last week, down from 297,400.
For Northern Ireland, the latest estimate is also one in 20, but the number of people testing positive is up slightly from 99,200 to 104,300, with the ONS describing the trend there as "uncertain".
Meanwhile, in Wales, the estimate is one in 25, or 112,100 people, down from 169,100.
