Covid cases jump by 13% in a week as officials warn up to one in SEVENTEEN ... trends now
Covid has once again bounced back in England, the latest surveillance data suggests, marking the highest toll since early January.
Up to one in 40 people are infected across England, with up to one in 17 affected in the worst-hit areas of the country.
Office for National Statistics (ONS) analysts estimate that almost 1.73million Brits were also carrying the virus on any given day in the week to March 13.
This a jump of almost 14 per cent on the week before, when approximately 1.52million Brits were estimated to be infected.
It comes as leading experts told MailOnline this week they fear the outbreak will continue to pick up pace in the coming weeks, with some calling for the return of face masks.
Office for National Statistics (ONS) analysts estimate that almost 1.73million Brits were carrying the virus on any given day in the week to March 13. This a jump of almost 14 per cent on the week before, when approximately 1.52million Brits were estimated to be infected
GP surgeries in parts of the country have also started cancelling appointments because the uptick has left them with 'exceptionally low' staff levels.
Michelle Bowen, head of health surveillance dissemination at the ONS, said: 'This week's data show infections are rising in England; however, the trend is uncertain across the rest of the UK.
'In England, positivity increased in children and those aged 50 and over. The North West, East Midlands and South East of England all saw infections increase, though the trend is uncertain in all other regions.'
But 'there are higher levels of uncertainty in these latest estimates because of lower numbers of samples received', the ONS said.
The ONS data, based on the random swabbing of around 100,000 Brits, suggests one in 40 people in England - some 1.49million (2.66 per cent) - were infected with Covid last week.
Virus levels also rose in Scotland, with 136,200 (one in 40 or 2.59 per cent) people were thought to be carrying the virus.
But infection levels were uncertain in Wales and Northern Ireland, the ONS said.
Wales recorded an estimated 74,500 cases (one in 40 people or 2.41 per cent).
In Northern Ireland, which recorded data for the week ending March 7, 26,000 were thought to be infected (one in 70 people or 1.42 per cent).
'For Northern Ireland, the reference week is the same as in our previous release, but estimates have been updated with additional test results received up to March 7, 2023,' the ONS said.
'There were too few samples returned in Northern Ireland after March 7, 2023 to produce robust estimates.'
The latest ONS Infection Survey Data comes just days after the ZOE Health Study revealed some 136,722 new symptomatic Covid cases were reported across the UK on March 20, 2023.
Professor Tim Spector, the epidemiologist behind the ZOE Covid infection survey, said cold weather — which encourages people to mix indoors — and children are driving the rise.
Professor Danny Altmann, an immunologist at Imperial College London, also told MailOnline the UK was in a 'rather serious situation' because of the waning vaccine immunity coupled with new
