Confirmed UK Covid cases have dropped sharply in the past week - but the number of recorded tests fell by more than a million in seven days.
Latest data show a huge 38.3 per cent week-on-week fall in people testing positive for the virus, while hospitalisations have remained stable.
Sadly the UK's official Covid-19 death toll passed 170,000, with 1,613 people dying within 28 days of a positive test in last week.
Scotland, where lateral flow tests are still available for free until later this month, is recording the highest rate of infections, latest data shows.
In England the South West is recording the largest infection rate, figures released by the Department of Health confirm.
It comes as the NHS Confederation warned that very high rates of Covid-19 are having a "major impact" on the health service - which is facing pressures it would see in a "bad winter" well into spring.
It warned that ministers risk "abandoning" the NHS if they do not take action.
As well as dealing with large volumes of Covid-19 patients, there are high rates of staff absences due to the virus, full hospitals and severe demands on emergency care.
In the week commencing March 28, 21,432 delays of half an hour or longer were recorded in ambulance "hand overs" across all hospital trusts in England.
The NHS Confederation said that in the last week alone 20 emergency departments in England have been forced to turn patients away as they issued "diverts" due to being too full.
Hospitalisations
In the past week 16,438 people have been admitted to hospital with Covid-19, and on Friday there were just over 20,000 patients with the virus being treated in UK hospital beds.
This is up from under 11,000 in mid-February, and higher than the post-Omicron wave in January.
But more than half are being primarily treated for other conditions, NHS chiefs say.
Latest figures show 42 per cent of those in England are being treated primarily for Covid.
On Friday there were 355 Covid patients in mechanical ventilator beds - up by nearly 100 since early March.
Cases
The number of confirmed positive tests is down significantly in the past week compared to the week before.
According to the latest Department of Health update, 281,269 people have tested positive for Covid in the past week - a drop of nearly 175.000.
But with free lateral flow tests scrapped at the start of the month in England, and isolation rules relaxed, this is to be expected to a degree.
The government figures also show that the number of test results reported has also plummeted.
From April 4 to April 10, 3.2 million test results were registered across the UK - down from more than 4.3 million a week before.
Free lateral flow tests remain available in Scotland, where recorded infection rates are highest, for another week.
Deaths
Today the official UK coronavirus death toll passed 170,000, with 170,107 lives lost since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
In the past week 1,613 people have died within 28 days of a positive Covid test - a 45 per cent rise on the previous seven days.
However as with hospitalisations, this is not to say that coronavirus was the primary cause of death.
In the week to March 25, Covid-19 was mentioned on 1,005 death certificates registered across the UK.
Hotspots
According to the latest government figures, the UK's 20 worst hotspots are all in Scotland.
Devon, which is 22nd overall, has the highest rate in England, while Wrexham in Wales has the lowest.
However these figures should be taken with a pinch of salt, as testing has been significantly scaled back in England.
According to the latest testing data, the 20 worst hotspots in the UK are:
- Na h-Eileanan Siar - 1,366 cases per 100,000 people
- Shetland Islands - 1,311.8 cases per 100,000 people
- South Ayrshire - 991.6 cases per 100,000 people
- East Lothian - 969.4 cases per 100,000 people
- Falkirk - 918.7 cases per 100,000 people
- East Ayrshire - 908.7 cases per 100,000 people
- Inverclyde - 892.8 cases per 100,000 people
- Highland - 859.7 cases per 100,000 people
- North Ayrshire - 858.1 cases per 100,000 people
- Clackmannanshire - 857.9 cases per 100,000 people
- Midlothian - 850.2 cases per 100,000 people
- East Dunbartonshire - 845.1 cases per 100,000 people
- City of Edinburgh - 808.5 cases per 100,000 people
- South Lanarkshire - 803.6 cases per 100,000 people
- Stirling - 800.4 cases per 100,000 people
- Renfrewshire - 798.8 cases per 100,000 people
- Scottish Borders - 788.8 cases per 100,000 people
- West Lothian - 786.6 cases per 100,000 people
- Dumfries and Galloway - 783.6 cases per 100,000 people
- Fife - 776.2 cases per 100,000 people
