Coronavirus rates finally appear to be falling after a three-month surge.
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which aims to estimate the actual number of people with Covid-19, suggests that about one in 75 people had the virus last week.
The ONS numbers are higher than most other such statistics because they aim to predict how many people are infected, as opposed to how many people actually test positive, reports The Mirror.
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As of the week ending July 31, the ONS estimates that between 671,800 and 775,900 people in England had coronavirus, saying the figure is expected to be 722,300 – which equates to one in 75 people. .
The previous week, the figure had risen to one in 65 people.
The last time the ONS figures showed a decrease was the week ending May 8 – when it was estimated that only one in about 1,340 people were infected.
In the Northeast, the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 is also declining.
As of Thursday, August 5, the latest case rate per 100,000 in the region stood at 305, down from the previous week, though still higher than England’s rate of 277.
The fall comes as more than nine in ten people in the Northeast are now believed to have Covid-19 antibodies, meaning they have either been vaccinated or infected.
Having antibodies can help prevent people from getting infected, and if people with antibodies are infected, they may be less likely to have severe symptoms.