The number of people in the UK with COVID has increased by 32 per cent to nearly 2.3 million, the latest figures show.
This is up from 1.7 million people last week and is the highest estimate of total infections since late April.
But it is still well below the record high of 4.9 million reached at the end of March.
The Office for National Statistics says Omicron’s BA.4 and BA.5 variants are likely behind the latest surge.
They are said to be the most dominant strains of bacteria in the UK.
The virus continues to be most prevalent in Scotland, where 288,200 people likely tested positive for COVID last week, or one in 18.
That number is up for the week from 250,700, or one in 20.
In the UK, more than 1.8 million people are likely to have contracted the virus last week, equivalent to about one in 30 people.
This is up from 1.3 million, or one in 40 people, last week.
Wales has seen the number of infections rise sharply to 106,500, or 1 in 30, up from 68,500.
In Northern Ireland, an estimated 71,000 people have the disease, or one in every 25 people, up from 59,900 or one in 30 people.
