ONS: More than half a million people had Covid in England last week

According to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) more than 560,000 people were confirmed to have had coronavirus last week.

Around one in 100 had the virus between 17 and 23 October, and cases increased to 51,900 each day in England last week.

From the 10 to 16 October infections were up by 47% from 35,200 confirmed cases each day during the period.

Between 17 to 23 October, the ONS survey estimated that 568,1000 people have the virus across England, which is up from 433,000 the previous week.

Infections are increasing amongst secondary school children, with older teenagers and young adults now having the highest rates.

Katherine Kent, co-head of analysis for the COVID-19 infection survey said, “Following the expansion of ONS infection survey, we are now seeing evidence of increases in COVID-19 infections across the UK.

“In England, infections have continued to rise steeply, with increases in all regions apart from in the North East, where infections appear to have now levelled off.

“Wales and Northern Ireland have also all seen increased infections, though it is currently too early to see a certain trend in Scotland, where we have been testing for a shorter period.

“When looking at infections across different age groups, rates now seem to be steeply increasing among secondary school children whilst older teenagers and young adults continue to have the highest levels of infection.”