Covid infections in Wales jump 58% in the last week

The number of Covid infections in Wales has risen for the second week in a row according to the latest figures published by the Office for National Statistics.

Over the week ending 20 September, the ONS estimated the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 was 62,900, around 2.07% of the population, or around 1 in 50 people.

The number of infections in Wales has jumped by almost 60% week on week after the ONS estimated 39,700 people, 1.31% of the population, or around 1 in 75 people, tested positive for Covid in the previous week’s infection survey.

Uncertain

Covid infections are also up in England for the second straight week, but the ONS says the current trend in both Scotland and Northern Ireland is uncertain.

In England, the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in the week to September 17 was 857,400, or around one in 65 – up from 766,500, or one in 70, in the seven days to September 14.

In Scotland, 117,100 people were likely to have had Covid-19 in the latest survey, or around one in 45, compared with 98,800 or one in 55 in the previous week.

And in Northern Ireland, the estimate is 23,100, or one in 80 people, compared with 22,900, also one in 80.

Some 1.1 million people in private households across the UK are likely to have tested positive for coronavirus in the latest survey, a rise of 14% from 927,900 in the previous survey, which covered the week to September 13/14.

It is the first time the UK-wide total has been above one million since late August, though it is still some way below the 3.8 million weekly infections in early July at the peak of the wave caused by the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the virus.

Sarah Crofts, ONS deputy director for the Covid-19 infection survey, said it is “too early to identify whether this is the start of a new wave”.

But Professor Tim Spector, co-founder of the Zoe Health Study which is based on coronavirus symptoms reported by volunteers across the country, said on Thursday it was “clear we’re now seeing an autumn wave of Covid-19, combined with increases in hospital admissions”.