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Covid-19 infections in UK at lowest level for eight months

Total infections are down 81% since the peak of the Omicron BA.2 wave.

01 June 2022

Covid-19 infections in the UK have dropped to their lowest level for eight months, though the trend in some areas is uncertain, figures show.

A total of 953,900 people in private households are estimated to have had the virus last week, down from 1.1 million the previous week, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

It is the lowest estimate since the end of September 2021 and the first time the weekly figure for the UK has been below one million since early November.

Total infections have fallen by 81% since the peak of the Omicron BA.2 wave in late March, when a record 4.9 million were estimated to have Covid-19.

(PA Graphics)

In England, infections have fallen for the eighth week running, with 784,100 people likely to test positive for Covid-19 – the equivalent of around one in 70.

This is down week-on-week from 874,400, or one in 60.

In Scotland levels have resumed their downward trend after a small jump in mid-May, and now stand at 105,900, or one in 50, down from 135,400 or one in 40.

Wales has seen Covid-19 infections drop for the seventh week in a row, with 39,600 people estimated to have coronavirus, or one in 75, down from 52,900, or one in 55.

But levels are not dropping right across the UK.

In Northern Ireland there has been a slight rise, from 23,300 people, or one in 80, to 24,300 or one in 75, a trend the ONS described as “uncertain”.

The trend in also uncertain in north-east England, north-west England, London and the West Midlands, while infections are likely to have fallen in all other regions.

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