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Coronavirus infection rates continue to fall in England, with one in 220 people testing positive for the virus outside of hospital, the latest figures show.
About 248,100 people tested positive for COVID-19 in the community of England during the week ending February 27, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This is down from one in 145 in the prior week.
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In Wales, the ONS estimates that one in 285 people tested positive for coronavirus this week. In Northern Ireland the figure was 1 in 325 and in Scotland it was 1 in 335.
Infection rates decreased in all age groups except for high school students ages 7-11, where trends are “uncertain” and declines may be beginning to slow.
High school students must return to school on Monday.
Cases were down in all English regions except the North East, East and East Midlands, where the decline appears to have slowed or stalled.
The Northeast had the highest infection rate, with 1 in 150 people testing positive outside the hospital, followed by the West Midlands, where the figure was 1 in 160.
People were less likely to have COVID in the Southwest, where only one in 365 people have the virus in private homes.
Elsewhere, another ONS survey reveals that more people commute to work than last week.
Its most recent opinion and lifestyle survey covers the week of February 24-28 and shows that 39% of working adults went to work compared to 34% the week before.
The number of people who work solely from home also appears to have fallen from 37% in mid-February to 32% in the last week.
The data suggests that as the country approaches the first steps to ease the lockdown, people’s attitudes toward the virus and infection rates are slowly beginning to change.
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Death rates from COVID also continue to fall, with 242 reported across the UK on Thursday. A week earlier, the figure was 323.
Professor Andrew Hayward of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) said Friday that death figures will continue to fall as vaccines are administered.
“I think that given the social compensations, we will have to live with a degree of mortality that will be substantial,” he told Times Radio.
But he added: “I think it will decrease over time as more people get vaccinated and more people become immune, and I think we’ve been through the worst of this.”
Professor Hayward also said that he does not believe that the new variants of the virus completely circumvent the protection offered by vaccines.
