Total Covid-19 infections in the UK have climbed above two million for the first time since July, though there are signs the rate of increase may be slowing, figures show.
Health experts said the trend was “encouraging” and the current wave of the virus “may have already peaked”, with Covid-19 hospital numbers appearing to have levelled off in recent days. But there have been renewed calls for people to take up the offer of an autumn booster of Covid vaccine, with around four in 10 over-75s yet to.
Just over two million people in private households in the UK are likely to have tested positive for coronavirus in the week to October 10, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is up 15% from 1.7 million in the previous week and is the highest total since the week to July 26 – though still some way below the peak of 3.8 million reached in early July, during the wave caused by the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 subvariants of the virus.
