Covid cases drop by a QUARTER in a week as 46,025 get bug and 167 people die

DAILY Covid cases in the UK have dropped by more than a quarter in just a week.

A total of 46,025 people tested positive for the virus in the latest 24-hour period – down from 63,493 seven days ago.

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A further 167 fatalities were also recorded, significantly down from the 259 reported on February 5.

Today’s figures bring the UK’s coronavirus death toll to 159,518, while there have been 18,266,015 cases since the pandemic began.

The fall in infections comes after health chiefs hailed the vaccine for preventing 13,000 hospital admissions.

Millions of vaccines and boosters have been rolled out across the UK and have helped protect the most vulnerable from severe illness.

The NHS scrambled to deliver the lifesaving vaccine top-ups when Omicron reared its head over Christmas.

There have been an average of 12,031 patients admitted to hospital each week since December 13, with 10,197 in the past seven days.

The figure could have been twice as high without the booster jabs.

And the shots will be offered to children as young as five as soon as Monday.

But with the benefits of being immunised “finely balanced” in younger children, parents will not be pushed to get it.

Instead the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation will give those aged five to 11 a “non-urgent offer”.

It effectively means they can choose whether to have the Covid shot or not.