London, Europe Brief News – Covid cases in the UK have risen by nearly 20 per cent, according to new estimates, with around 2.7 million people infected last week.
The increase continues to be driven by the Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5, said the Office for National Statistics, whose latest data show that 1 in 25 people in England had Covid in the week ending 29 June.
The rise is being driven by fast-spreading sub-variants of Omicron – called BA.4 and BA.5.
People are still able to catch the infection even if they have had Covid before.
But the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) latest analysis shows jabs are helping to protect against serious illness.
Health officials are urging anyone who has not had a vaccine or booster in the past six months, to get one – particularly people over the age of 75, who are more at risk from serious disease.
The stats are collated by testing thousands of people from UK households – whether or not they have symptoms – to estimate how much virus is around.
Sarah Crofts, who works on the ONS’s Covid-19 infection survey, said there was a continued rise across all UK countries, English regions and age groups.
She added: “Scotland continues to have the highest infection rate, although it has recently increased at a slower rate compared to other UK countries. We will continue to monitor the data to see if this recent rise is starting to slow in Scotland.”
