Friday 1 July 2022 01:00 PM Britain's Covid cases jump by a THIRD in a week trends now

Britain's new Covid surge continues to grow with cases jumping by a third in a week, with data suggesting as many as one in 18 people have the virus in some parts of the country.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) estimated nearly 2.3million people in the UK had the virus on any day for the week ending June 24 with analysts linking the rise to of the new Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5.

There were 1.8million Covid infections  recorded in England alone in ONS's latest infection survey, about in 30 people, a rise of about 38 per cent compared to the previous week.

Scotland recorded the highest Covid levels of the UK nations with 288,200 people estimated to have Covid, about one in 18 of the population. 

Cases also continued to rise in Northern Ireland and Wales.

The rise in cases comes just a week after the UK Health Security Agency confirmed the Omicron sub-strains BA.4 and BA.5 are now the dominant strains in the UK.

They are thought to be even more infectious than their ancestral versions, which were to blame for cases reaching pandemic highs in December and April, but are just as mild.

Celebrations for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, half-term holidays and warm weather are also thought to be fuelling the latest surge. Some have also pointed to Britons mistaking Covid symptoms for hay fever. But infectious disease specialists have confidence the upcoming wave will be no worse than other peaks seen this year. 

The ONS data also estimated that 106,000 had the virus in Wales last week, about one in 30 of the population, similar to England. 

Northern Ireland continued to enjoy the lowest levels of the virus in the UK with only 71,000, about one in 25 people, infected though this is still a rise compared to last week's estimate. 

The weekly ONS report is now considered the best barometre of the outbreak since free-testing was axed.

The latest figures on the virus came as Boris Johnson refused to definitively rule out more Covid restrictions — as Covid hospital admissions continue to rise.

The Prime Minister said there were no plans for curbs 'at the moment' as he appeared to leave the door open to future measures.

He was given the opportunity to rule out ever imposing restrictions again in an interview with LBC this morning at a NATO summit in Madrid.

'I think that we see no reason for that at the moment and the most important thing is vaccination,' he said.

But Mr Johnson suggested that a sharp spike in hospitalisations could be the trigger point for new restrictions. 

He added: 'We're not seeing the types of pressures on the medical services that would lead us to anything like that.'

Daily Covid hospital admissions have almost trebled in the last month to around 1,200 — though only a fraction of patients are primarily ill with the disease.

Mr Johnson refused to rule out a future lockdown in April, saying it would be 'irresponsible’ to discard something ‘that could save lives’ if a deadlier variant emerges.

Covid case numbers have became less important now that vaccines and natural immunity have severed the link between infection and severe illness.

Ministers are now looking to NHS virus figures to gauge the severity of the outbreak, which have been rising for over a month.