Covid cases at lowest level since June as outbreak shrinks without restrictions

COVID cases have plummeted to their lowest level since last June as the latest outbreak fizzles out without any restrictions.

Fresh government stats show there were 12,421 people who tested positive for Covid in the last 24 hours – down some 37 per cent on the 19,795 recorded last Friday.

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It’s the lowest number since June 22 last year, when there were 11,625 cases confirmed.

But questions have been raised about the reliability of the figures now that free testing has been scrapped.

Deaths have also reached their lowest daily total since the start of April, dropping 18.8 percent in a week to 216 today.

And hospitalisations have also dropped, some 23.4 percent to 1,260 on Monday, according to the latest data.

It comes as separate government data showed England’s Covid outbreak has shrunk to its lowest level in two months as the country’s latest wave continues to peter out.

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests 2.4million people in England were infected any day last week, which is equivalent to one in 25 people – down by a quarter from last week.

It was part of a massive study of 120,000 people to understand the nation’s latest outbreak.

The analysis found “welcome decreases” in infections, senior ONS statistician Kara Steel said.

“Infections have thankfully continued to decrease across most of the UK, though we are yet to see if this is part of a larger trend.”

She said despite the good news, infections rates still “remain high”.

Vaccines are the best line of defence, health bosses say, with a new study showing symptoms in the triple jabbed last on average half as long as a common cold.

Spring boosters are being dished out for certain groups in society, to keep their immunity high.

It comes after the World Health Organisation warned a new Omicron strain, XE, is more transmissible than previous variants – with 1,179 cases detected in the UK so far.

Omicron XE is a sub-variant or “recombinant” variant – and was first detected in the UK in January.

The WHO explained: “Early-day estimates indicate a community growth rate advantage of 10 per cent as compared to BA.2, however this finding requires further confirmation.

“XE belongs to the Omicron variant until significant differences in transmission and disease characteristics, including severity, may be reported.”