THE UK’s daily Covid cases have fallen by a quarter on last week – with deaths also dropping by 100.
Today 66,638 new infections were logged in the past 24 hours, a slight dip on from yesterday.
Last Thursday 303 fatalities had been recorded from the virus, with 206 reported today.
Cases are still high at over 50,000 a day at the moment, but are staying fairly steady.
Ministers have said Britain is learning to live with Covid, as we accept a larger toll of infections as a part of daily life.
This is due to vaccinations preventing serious illness, and Omicron proving to be a milder virus, especially in the vaccinated.
Patients admitted to hospital each day have remained under 2,000 in recent weeks.
The latest data from February 6 shows 1,308 people taken into wards with Covid.
It comes as a leading study today claimed Omicron cases have peaked for the second time this year.
But despite the worst being over, and tumbling hospitalisations and death, infections are “far too high” to ease restrictions, an expert has said.
It comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced self-isolation will soon be scrapped.
The ZOE Covid Study estimates there are 203,973 new symptomatic cases of Covid in the UK.
It’s an increase of 4.5 per cent from the 195,068 reported last week and compares to the peak of 208,471 daily cases on January 6.
One in 25 people in the UK are currently unwell with symptoms of the virus, the study predicts, and there will be more that are asymptomatic.
Professor Tim Spector, a King’s College London epidemiologist and lead scientist on the study, said “it looks like we’ve now passed the second big peak of the year” but cases were “currently far too high”.
He said hospitalisations, ICU cases and deaths are falling, which is evident from the Government’s data, too.
