Covid Reported Infections Plunge by Another 20% in a Week to Lowest Level Since Start of December

Britain’s Omicron wave is still fizzling out ahead of the Prime Minister’s planned ending of the final Covid rules next week, according to official figures which show the outbreak is shrinking in terms of infections, hospitalisations and deaths. MailOnline has more.

U.K. Health Security Agency bosses logged 47,685 positive tests over the past 24 hours, a fifth down on last week’s count. The rolling seven-day average number of daily cases, considered a more accurate measure, has dipped to below 47,000, mirroring levels seen at the start of December before Omicron had properly taken off.
Daily hospital admissions across the U.K. have fallen by 8% over the same time-frame as the pressure on the NHS continues to recede. And deaths have fallen by 18%, with 158 victims recorded today.
The Prime Minister is set to unveil his blueprint for ‘living with Covid’ on Monday, with ministers set to finalise the the strategy over the weekend. When unveiling his intention to get rid of the last restrictions – including the need for infected people to self-isolate – the PM last week claimed it would only happen if the outbreak continued to recede.
Today’s figures will inevitably give him even more confidence, with cases, deaths and hospitalisations having been in freefall for over a fortnight. …
Latest testing figures show 14% fewer swabs were carried out across the UK compared to last week. But the positivity rate – the proportion of swabs that detect the virus – is also trending downwards, suggesting that the fall in cases is genuine and not just down to fewer tests. …
Hospitalisation data shows 11,555 people infected with the virus were occupying beds at 8am [Friday] morning – 10% fewer than a week ago and the lowest level in seven weeks.
And 331 Covid patients were in intensive care across the U.K. [on Friday] – the fewest in more than seven months.
Vaccination data shows 91.4% of people aged 12 and over have had at least one Covid vaccine, while 84.9% are double-jabbed and two-thirds are boosted.

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