The average number of people getting infected with coronavirus per day fell by nearly 9,000 in the first full week of England’s lockdown, new figures have revealed.

The Office For National Statistics’ Covid-19 infection study estimated 38,900 people caught the virus per day in England in the week November 8 to 14.

This is down on the estimated 47,700 new cases per day for the period October 31 to November 6.

The influential study, which helps inform government policy, provides estimates on the severity of the outbreak in private households, based on a sample of people getting tested.

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Overall the ONS said infections ‘appear to be levelling off’ for the UK as a whole but there are significant regional variations.

Over the last week, positivity rates have continued to increase in London, the East of England and the South East, however they now appear to be decreasing in the North West and the East Midlands.

The highest Covid-19 positivity rates remain in the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber.

In both Wales and Northern Ireland, which went into lockdowns earlier than England, the second wave appears to have peaked in mid October and rates have been decreasing over the last four weeks.

In Scotland, which still has a tiered approach to tackling the virus, rates increased throughout October but now appear to have levelled off.

Despite the drop in daily new cases, the ONS has estimated the weekly rate has increased slightly week-on-week.

An estimated 664,700 people had Covid-19 between November 8 and 14, the equivalent of around 1.22% of the population.

This was up from 654,000 people, or 1.20% of the population in the period October 31 to November 6.

The ONS said the reason why weekly cases were up while daily cases were down was because each figure is calculated using a different methodology and both are estimates with a fairly wide margin for error.

The highest positivity rates were seen among secondary school-aged children and older teenagers and young adults, although trends vary between these groups.

Rates continue to increase in primary school-aged children but appear to be levelling off in people aged 25 and over.

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