There are early signs that the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in England is on the increase, but the trend in Wales is more uncertain, according to latest figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that 40,500 people had the virus in Wales for the week ending June 2 - equating to 1.33% of the population, or around one in 75 people.
The ONS says the figures for England and Northern Ireland show early signs of a possible increase in the percentage of people testing positive, which is likely to be causes in infections from various Omicron variants.
In England, the estimated number of people testing positive for coronavirus was 797,500, which is around 1.46% of the population or around 1 in 70 people.
In Northern Ireland, the estimated number of people testing positive was 27,700 - which is 1.51% of the population or around 1 in 65 people and in Scotland it was 2.36% of the population or around 1 in 40 people.
It is the first time in two months that Covid-19 infections in the UK have risen, with a total in the UK of 989,800 people in private households are estimated to have had the virus last week, up from 953,900 the previous week.
The ONS infection survey is now the most reliable measure of the prevalence of Covid-19 in the UK. It uses a sample of swab tests collected regularly from tens of thousands of households, and is therefore able to estimate the percentage of people likely to test positive for coronavirus at any point in time, regardless of when they caught the virus, how many times they have had it and whether they have symptoms.
Figures from hospitals in Wales show that the number of people being treated for Covid, as opposed to being in hospital for another reason and testing positive for Covid, is still falling. The latest figures are for June 9, and show that 129 confirmed coronavirus patients were being treated in hospitals compared to 143 on June 8. Of these however, only 14 were actively being treated for Covid-19.
The hospital board with the most coronavirus patients was the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board with 47 patients, compared to seven in Swansea Bay University Health Board.
The number of Covid patients in ICU beds is also still low at just nine across Wales. Figures are not provided showing how many of these patients are primarily being treated for Covid.
