Record 3.7 million people had Covid in last week of 2021

1 in 15 people in England are estimated to have had coronavirus in the week ending December 31

1 in 10 people in London are estimated to have had coronavirus in the last week of 2021 (Getty Images)

An estimated 3.7 million people in the UK had Covid-19 in the week leading up to December 31, the Office for National Statistics has revealed.

The figure is up from 2.3 million people in the week to December 23 and is the highest number since comparable figures began in autumn 2020.

A staggering 1 in 15 people are estimated to have had coronavirus in the last week of 2021, according to the ONS. That was estimated to be around 1 in 20 in Wales, 1 in 25 in Northern Ireland and 1 in 20 in Scotland.

In London, which has seen the largest surge of infections in the country so far, 1 in 10 people were estimated to have had the virus over that time period.

Infection rates are now climbing among school age children and young adults and Omicron is the dominant variant across the whole of the UK.

Health minister Gillian Keegan said on Wednesday morning that around one million people were currently self isolating with Covid-19 but this could be an underestimate.

She said: “We don’t collect that data on a daily basis but it’s obvious if you look at the number of people who tested positive today - about 215,000, they’ll all be self isolating... it’s probably about a million people self isolating right now.”