Covid cases fall in England and Wales as 1 in 35 people infected

It comes as NHS braces for difficult winter season

The Office for National Statistics has released new data on Covid (Victoria Jones/PA) (PA Wire)

The number of people testing positive for Covid in England has dropped, official figures show.

The Office for National Statistics said around 1 in 35 people in the country found they had the virus in the week ending 24 October.

This was down from 1 in 30 people the week before.

The ONS weekly Covid infection survey found cases continued to drop in Wales, where 1 in 40 people are estimated as having the virus.

In Northern Ireland, however, Covid infections had increased. Around 1 in 30 tested positive for the virus in the week ending 24 October, the ONS said.

The trend was uncertain in Scotland, according to the national statistics body.

It comes just days after the ONS said the number of Covid-related deaths had risen for the fourth week in a row in England and Wales.

Despite the increase, the figures remained well below those seen early on in the pandemic.

It comes as the NHS braces for what is expected to be a difficult winter.

There are also fears that a combination of flu and Covid on top of an already stretched service could make the winter one of the toughest the health and care sector has ever faced.

A number of Omicron variants have been circulating in the UK since the summer, including the two that have now been named as BQ.1 and XBB.

These are being monitored for their potential to spread rapidly, but have not been designated variants of concern, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said.

BQ.1 is being monitored because of its “rapid growth”, while XBB is thought to be a factor in the recent spike in Covid-19 cases in Singapore, the UKHSA said.

The ONS infection survey is the most reliable measure of the prevalence of coronavirus and is based on a sample of swab tests from households across the UK.

But there is a lag in the reporting of the data, due to the time it takes for the survey to be compiled.

UKHSA figures show that the Covid hospital admission rate fell to 7.78 per 100,000 population in the week to October 30 from 9.82 in the previous week.

Hospital admission rates for Covid-19 were highest in the North East at 11.49 per 100,000 population, the agency added.

Dr Mary Ramsay, director of public health programmes at the UKHSA, said: “The continued success of the vaccination programme means that Covid-19 cases and hospitalisation rates are still falling across the UK.

“This is excellent news, but we need to make sure that we remain protected through the winter. We are urging everyone to come forward and take up all the vaccine doses for which they are eligible as soon as possible.”