Covid-19 infections continue to fall in Wales

The number of people testing positive for Covid in Wales has fallen again, according to the latest update from the Office for National Statistics.

38,800 people had Covid in the week ending 24 January, a fall of almost a third from the previous seven days.

The ONS estimates 1.26% of the population had Covid (a decrease from 1.85% in the previous week), or around 1 in 80 people, the lowest rate in the UK.

The number of people with the virus in Wales had fallen by over 50% in the report for the week ending 17 January.

A total of 941,800 people in private households in the UK were likely to have had Covid-19 in the latest survey, down 15% from 1.1 million the previous week.

September 2022

This is the lowest UK total since the week ending September 14 2022.

Infections peaked at 3.0 million at the end of December, following a surge in the run-up to Christmas.

This was below the levels reached in previous waves, including in spring 2022 when the weekly total climbed to a record 4.9 million.

Michelle Bowen, ONS head of health surveillance, said that while infections across the UK nations showed “an overall decrease”, there are “differing trends when we look across age groups”.

She added: “In England we have seen increases in school age children and those aged 35-49 years in the latest week, with decreases only seen in over-50s.

“We will continue to monitor the data closely to see how the situation evolves in the coming weeks.”

Covid-19 is most prevalent in Northern Ireland, where one in 65 people is estimated to have the virus.

For England and Scotland the estimate is one in 70.

Scotland’s estimate is the lowest the nation has seen since December 2021.