Nearly 4.3 million people were infected with the coronavirus in the week ended March 19, up from just 3.3 million a week earlier. Scotland is in the grip of its biggest outbreak to date, with one in 11 Scots infected during the seven-day period. In England and Wales, one in 16 people became infected, according to ONS estimates released on Friday. Infection rates across the UK are now just shy of the record levels reached in early January, when the country was under tighter restrictions as it faced the first outbreak of the Omicron variant. The data comes as Britain prepares to end free large-scale trials by the end of the month, which experts have warned will make pandemic monitoring more difficult and could speed up the spread of the virus. Infections are on the rise in all parts of the United Kingdom except Northern Ireland due to the highly contagious Omicron BA.2. Sarah Crofts, head of analytical results in the ONS Infection Research, noted that Northern Ireland was “a few weeks ahead of the rest of the United Kingdom” and had recorded a “welcome reduction” in infections. However, he added that infection rates in Scotland had reached “the highest level of any UK country observed in our survey” and in England infection rates above the age of 50 have also risen to high levels. “Politicians in the UK and at decentralized levels have decided as a practical matter to let the virus spread to the population,” said James Naismith, director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute and a professor of structural biology at Oxford University.

“The sheer scale of the infection is now pushing the health service, but the combination of vaccination, improved treatments and the less severe nature of Omicron means for the vast majority of those infected, it will not be life-threatening,” he added. Some 17,440 patients with Covid are currently being treated in hospitals across the UK as of March 24, up 22% from a week earlier. In Scotland, 2,326 patients with Covid are currently receiving hospital treatment – the highest level of pandemic. However, there are indications that the pace of hospitalization has slowed in recent days. In England, almost three-fifths of patients with Covid are treated mainly for another medical problem, as they were found to be positive by admission.

Stephen Griffin, a virologist at the University of Leeds and a member of the Independent Sage scientific advisory group, said easing restrictions was partly responsible for the increase. “Blinding ourselves to this level of damage does not mean that we live with a virus infection, quite the opposite,” Griffin said. “The frustration with the lack of mitigation measures that could so easily curb this wave is palpable for many. “Without adequate vaccination, ventilation, coverage, isolation and testing, we will continue to ‘live’ with disorders, disease and, unfortunately, death as a result.” Professor Oliver Johnson, director of the Institute of Statistics at the University of Bristol, said the virus would soon “run out of people to infect” and that better weather and the upcoming Easter school holidays would also “slow down” transmission. However, he added: “If you naively think that England will get over it very soon, Scotland shows the opposite. . . the numbers are insanely high and they are still rising. “