COVID-19 infections increased in Scotland, trends uncertain in England, Wales and Northern Ireland

COVID-19 infections increased in Scotland, and the trends were uncertain in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland in the week ending 28 February 2023.

The estimated percentage of people living in private households (those not in care homes or other communal establishments) testing positive for COVID-19 was:

2.38% in England (1 in 40 people)
2.14% in Wales (1 in 45 people)
1.35% in Northern Ireland (1 in 75 people)
2.44% in Scotland (1 in 40 people)

In England, the infection rate increased in the North East and West Midlands, and trends were uncertain for all other regions, in the week ending 28 February 2023. In the same week, trends in COVID-19 infections varied across age groups.

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The overall hospital admission rate of patients with confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) in England increased slightly to 9.44 per 100,000 people in the week ending 5 March 2023. In the same week, the intensive care unit (ICU) and high dependency unit (HDU) admission rate of patients with confirmed COVID-19 remained similar at 0.27 per 100,000 people.

In the UK, there were 474 deaths involving COVID-19 registered in the week ending 24 February 2023. This is a decrease from 476 in the previous week. Deaths involving COVID-19 accounted for 3.5% of all deaths in the UK in the latest week, which is similar to the previous week.

In England, there were 399 deaths involving COVID-19 registered in the week ending 24 February 2023, similar to the 401 in the previous week.

We will be pausing COVID-19 Infection Survey data collection from mid-March, and as a result the final weekly publication will be published on 24 March. As the UK Health Security Agency works to confirm its approach to surveillance, the ONS plans to work with existing participants to continue gathering valuable insight into the experiences of COVID-19, long COVID and other respiratory infections, details of which will be announced in due course. We thank our participants for their continued support.

Overview of the pandemic

Since COVID-19 reached the UK in early 2020, more than 500 million tests have been reported, more than 9 in every 10 people aged 12 years and over have received at least two vaccinations, and more than 150,000 people have died.

The ONS Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey, run independently of government testing, has conducted tests on hundreds of thousands of weekly samples to provide the best estimate of the scale of the pandemic, with a peak of 1 in 13 people infected in England in March 2022.