Covid-19 in the UK: How many coronavirus cases are there in my area?

Covid-19 infections in the UK may be beginning to level off, the latest weekly Office for National Statistics figures suggest.

On Wednesday a further 2,714 people who died within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test in England were added to official figures retrospectively, due to a data processing error.

In total about 169,000 people have died in the UK since the outbreak of the virus.

The number of hospital patients with coronavirus is also stabilising and levels remain well below those seen in previous waves of the pandemic.

A Covid vaccination programme has so far reached nine in 10 people aged 12 and over with a first dose.

Meanwhile, England has scrapped free coronavirus tests for most people, although some free testing for the public will continue in Scotland and Wales.

Signs of cases levelling off

Case numbers remain high, with an estimated one in every 13 people infected in the week ending 2 April, according an infection survey by the Office for National Statistics.

However the estimated number of infections is very slightly down on last week, which may be a sign of cases beginning to level off.

The survey is thought to give the best picture of infections across the UK because people are selected to take part at random. Survey participants across the country are tested weekly and there is a lag of several days before the figures are published.

A highly-transmissible sub-variant of Omicron, called BA.2, is now causing most cases.

Access to free coronavirus tests for most people ended in England on 1 April 2022.

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According to more recent government statistics, there were 41,384 confirmed coronavirus cases reported on Friday.

Since 31 January, the daily figure has included reinfections across the UK, although all nations apart from Wales used to only count the first infection.

Restrictions in Wales were relaxed on 28 March, following earlier loosening of measures in England and Northern Ireland.

Face masks are to remain mandatory in Scotland in shops and on public transport until 18 April.

An extra booster vaccination is now being offered to people aged 75 and over and certain other vulnerable groups.

The red and orange areas on the map below show the places currently seeing the highest number of cases per 100,000 people.

Hospital numbers flattening

The most recent government figures for the whole of the UK show 20,331 people with coronavirus were in hospital, up from 19,671 a week earlier, but starting to level off.

This level is similar to the number of Covid patients in January 2022. But there is a key difference - in January about 56% of people in hospital Covid beds were being treated mainly for the virus, but as of 29 March that figure is down to about 44%.

And the number of people being treated for very severe infections and needing intensive care remain low - as vaccinations continue to protect people from severe disease.

Of those in hospital with Covid, 357 were in mechanical ventilation beds - using ventilators to help them breathe - about the same number as a week earlier.

Vaccine rollout continuing

More than 52 million people, 92% of those aged 12 and over in the UK, have now received a first dose of a vaccine.

The number of people who have received a second vaccine dose is 49 million, or 86% of people aged 12 and over.

So far, more than 38 million booster doses have been administered across the UK.

An extra booster jab rollout is now under way for people aged 75 and over, residents in care homes and those with weakened immune systems.

Daily deaths remain low

There were 347 deaths within 28 days of a positive test reported on Friday. Of these, 302 were reported in England, 35 in Scotland, 5 in Wales and 5 in Northern Ireland.

As of 1 February, the reported daily deaths figure includes people who have died after being infected for a second time. These people used to be removed from the totals.

Until recently, the number of deaths in which a doctor thinks Covid played a role had been running lower than the official daily count.

It's always been true that some people who die within 28 days of a positive Covid test do so due to an illness or condition unrelated to coronavirus. Despite this, they are still included in the official daily figures.

When there are huge numbers of people testing positive - as there were in December and January - the number of people testing positive but dying from other reasons increases.

After a period of looking very different, the gap between the two ways of counting deaths has begun to close.

Death toll could be over 187,000

When looking at the overall death toll from coronavirus, official figures count deaths in three different ways, each giving a slightly different number.

First, government figures - the ones reported each weekday - count people who died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus. This figure is more than 169,000

According to the latest Office for National Statistics figures, the UK has now seen nearly 188,000 deaths in total - that's all those deaths where coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate even if the person had not been tested for the virus.

The third measure counts all deaths over and above the expected number since the pandemic began - that figure was about 143,000 as of 25 March. This number is sometimes referred to as excess deaths above the long-term average.