Covid infections in Wales fall 30% in the last week

The number of people in Wales with Covid-19 has fallen for the second week in a row.

The latest weekly infection survey, published by Office for National Statistics, has estimated the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 in the week ending 25 July was 108,800 equating to 3.58% of the population, or around 1 in 30 people.

This is a decline of just over 30% from the previous week when over 156,000 people were infected.

Last week’s fall was the first time in seven weeks the number of cases in Wales had gone down.

Uncertain

England and Scotland have also recorded a decline in cases, but the ONS says the trend was uncertain in Northern Ireland.

Some 2.1 million people in England were likely to have tested positive for Covid-19 in the week to July 26, the equivalent of around one in 25, the ONS said.

This is down from 2.6 million, or one in 20, a week earlier.

In Scotland, 260,800 people were estimated to have had Covid-19 in the week to July 26, or around one in 20.

This is down slightly from 272,000, or one in 19.

Infections in Northern Ireland dropped very slightly to 109,800, or one in 17, down from 113,400, or one in 16.

A total of 2.6 million people in private households across the UK are estimated to have had Covid-19 in the week to July 25/26, down 19% from 3.2 million in the previous week.

Infections have now dropped by more than a million in the space of a fortnight.

Dr Rhiannon Yapp, co-lead for the ONS Covid-19 infection survey, said: “Our most recent data suggests that infection rates have continued to decrease across much of the UK, although rates still remain high.

The latest Covid wave has been driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants of the virus and saw weekly infections climb as high as 3.8 million in early July.

This was not as steep as the record 4.9 million infections at the peak of the BA.2 Omicron wave in late March, however.

High levels of coronavirus antibodies among the population – either from vaccination or previous infection – mean the number of people seriously ill or dying from the virus remains low and the number of patients in hospital with the virus is also on a clear downwards trend.

The ONS infection survey is the most reliable measure of the prevalence of Covid-19 but will not be published next week due to a change in the way the data is collected.

The survey has previously been based on a sample of swab tests collected in person from households across the UK.

Participants in the survey will now have to return their swab tests by post, as well as complete a form online.

The ONS said it needs to carry out final checks next week before results from this new method are released for the first time.