COVID cases in the UK fell 13 per cent last week, compared to the seven days before.
Infections in the country dropped from around 3.4million to 2.9million in the week up to January 22.
It comes as fresh analysis has also shown Covid deaths are likely to have peaked after the Omicron wave – averaging at about 255 fatalities a day.
During a bad flu year up to 400 deaths are recorded each day.
Yesterday the Government official site logged 439 new virus deaths – but the reporting of deaths is made more complicated due to lags over weekends, and the official registration delays.
Dr Raghib Ali, an epidemiologist at the University of Cambridge, told the Daily Mail it was “irresponsible” to say deaths were still rising when “more important date of death data shows that deaths have peaked and are falling in the UK”.
Across all age groups, apart from children, cases are still falling – with kids on the rise due to going back to school.
Cases are still high, but have fallen hugely from the record numbers seen at the start of January, and only creeping as schools reopened.
It is a sign the UK is still headed out of the jaws of Omicron, after it arrived in the country before Christmas.
At midnight more Plan B measures will be thrown out for Brits, as mask wearing is no longer compulsory and vaccine passports ditched.
Boris Johnson said last week cases of the virus and hospitalisations are falling and “our scientists believe it is likely the Omicron wave has now peaked nationally”.
He declared: “Because of the extraordinary booster campaign, together with the way the public have responded to the Plan B measures, we can return to Plan A in England and allow Plan B regulations to expire.
Sarah Crofts, Head of Analytical Outputs for the Covid-19 Infection Survey said today: “Our latest data show that while Covid-19 infections remain high, they have continued to decrease almost everywhere in the UK apart from Northern Ireland, where the trend is uncertain.
The fall is evident in all age groups apart from children, among whom infections have risen.”
A string of studies show Omicron is milder than other strains in the vaccinated.
Covid booster jabs protect against Omicron and offer the best chance to get through the pandemic, health officials have repeatedly said.
Trending In The News’s Jabs Army campaign is helping get the vital extra vaccines in Brits’ arms to ward off the need for any new restrictions.
In England, the percentage of people testing positive for Covid-19 has continued to increase among children aged from two to school year 6, and has risen for those from school year 7 to 11.
Cases have fallen in all regions of England except the south-west, where the trend is uncertain, the ONS said.
A new Omicron sub-variant is spreading in the UK – with maps showing the increase in cases in one week.
Follow our Covid live blog for all the latest updates
The proportion of Covid cases caused by “BA.2”, or “Omicron’s sister”, have quadrupled in seven days, scientists say.
The variant has spread to at least 40 countries since it popped up in November, mostly in Denmark, India and Sweden – but scientists don’t believe it is thought to be any more severe than the original Omicron strain.
Some 426 cases of the new variant had been confirmed in the UK as of January 21.
However, data from the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK) says there have been 1,845 cases so far, mostly in England.
BA.2 appears to be able to spread faster than the original Omicron, according to data from the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA).
