The Covid Memorial Wall in London
(Picture: PA Wire)The UK recorded a further 227 Covid deaths and 16,611 cases on Wednesday.
The official data dashboard reported that due to a “technical issue affecting one data source”, the number of reported deaths in England is lower than expected.
They added any delay in reporting is expected to catch up in the next couple of days.
Last Wednesday 17,224 positive cases were recorded and 304 deaths.
In the past week, there have been 1,098 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test - a week on week decrease of 46.8 per cent. Some 84 of those were in London.
In total 78,697 people had a confirmed positive test result over the last 7 days - a decrease of 35.6 per cent on the previous week.
It came as infections are now estimated to be falling across the country after hitting record levels in March, but prevalence of Covid-19 remains high, the ONS said.
The 1,042 deaths registered in England and Wales in the seven days to April 22 is below the 1,484 weekly deaths registered at the peak of the initial Omicron wave in January this year.
It is also some way below the 8,433 deaths registered at the peak of the second wave of the virus, in the week to January 29 2021.
Overall, 194,868 deaths have now occurred in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, the ONS added.
The highest number on a single day was 1,487, on January 19 2021.
During the first wave of the virus, the daily toll peaked at 1,461 on April 8 2020.
Around nine in 10 deaths with Covid-19 on the death certificate since the start of the pandemic have coronavirus as the primary cause of death, with a minority listing the virus as a contributory factor.
