Covid-19 infections in England and Wales are continuing to increase, new figures show. The rise means the total number of infections in the UK has also gone up, though the trend in Scotland and Northern Ireland is unclear.
Some 1.1 million people in private households across the UK are likely to have tested positive for coronavirus in the latest survey, which covers the seven days to September 17 in England and the week to September 20 in the other three nations, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is a rise of 14% from 927,900 in the previous survey, which covered the week to September 13/14.
It is the first time the UK-wide total has been above one million since late August, though it is still some way below the 3.8 million weekly infections in early July at the peak of the wave caused by the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the virus. The figures come as the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 is also continuing to rise.
