COVID: Number of people with the virus in UK rose to 1 in 21 last week - as England's R number stands above 1
A health expert says the prevalence of COVID is increasing in every area and across age groups with the figures showing a "sharp uptick" in cases.
Friday 18 March 2022 21:40, UK
The number of people with COVID in the UK rose to around 1 in 21 last week, or 3.28 million people, the latest ONS figures show.
In England, around one in 20 in private households are thought to have the virus in the week to 12 March - or 2.7 million people.
That was up from 1 in 25, or 2.1 million people, recorded for the previous week to 5 March.
The ONS said hospital admissions for children under the age of 15 were more than double the peak recorded in the week ending 17 January last year.
A 'sharp uptick' in cases
The figures show the biggest rise in cases in England was in the South East.
Professor James Naismith, director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute, said the figures show evidence of a "sharp uptick" in COVID cases.
He said: "Prevalence is increasing in every area and across age groups. Without vaccines, this would be bleak for the country".
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England's COVID R number currently stands between at 1.1 to 1.4 - compared to last week's estimate of 0.8 to 1.1.
An R number between 1.1 and 1.4 means that for every 10 people infected, they will on average infect between 11 and 14 other people.
COVID hasn't gone away - but the vaccine is proving good enough to return to normal life
We may be "living with COVID", but that doesn't mean the virus has gone away.
Some of the rise in cases will be due to coronavirus restrictions being rolled back.
The more relaxed behaviour is giving the virus more opportunities to spread but probably more importantly, the dominant virus is changing. And that's the key driver of the rise in infections.
At the turn of the year, almost all COVID cases were caused by the original Omicron variant, called BA.1 - Delta was just about clinging on.
But since the middle of February a closely related spin-off of Omicron, BA.2, has been rising sharply. By 5 March, it accounted for 75% of all COVID cases.
The vaccine is just as effective against them, and both cause the same relatively mild disease.
But BA.2 is 1.4 times more infectious than the original Omicron - the rocket booster that is driving up cases and hospital admissions are also rising.
But significantly, the uptick in cases and hospitalisations started at the same time - around 25 February - rather than with a lag.
It suggests that as hospitals are catching up with the waiting list backlog, many patients are coming on to the wards with the virus rather than because of it.
Read the full analysis here.