UK sees another jump in Covid infections

Covid infections are continuing to rise in the UK, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show.

The data suggests around 1.7 million people were estimated to have Covid in the week ending 18 June.

This is around one in 35 people - an increase of 23% on the week before.

Experts say two new fast-spreading subvariants of Omicron - called BA.4 and BA.5 - are likely to be driving new infections.

People can catch these variants even if they have had Covid recently.

But BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron are not thought to be any more lethal than other types of Covid. Vaccines are still saving lives. Most people will not be very ill with Covid.

Kara Steel, senior statistician at the ONS, said the largest increases were seen in Scotland.

She added: "In England, infections increased across all age groups, with the lowest level of infection seen in school-aged children."

The figures are collated by testing thousands of people from UK households - whether they have symptoms or not - to estimate how much virus is around.

In the week ending 18 June, estimated Covid rates were: