cases? 0ne what is the trend now for covid cases? one of the most authoritative sources is the survey by the office for national statistics which picked up for national statistics which picked up those without symptoms. according to the 0ns, covid infections in the uk fell last week for the first time since late november. it is estimated 3.4 million people had the virus. infections came down in much of the uk including in england, where one in 20 people had the virus and in wales, with one in 25 and in scotland, one in 20, but in northern ireland also with one in 20, the trend was said to be uncertain. the head of the 0ns thinks this is a significant moment. the head of the ons thinks this is a significant moment. head of the ons thinks this is a significant moment. we are certainly seeinr a significant moment. we are certainly seeing a major significant moment. we are certainly seeing a major turning significant moment. we are certainly seeing a major turning point, - significant
for national statistics which picks up those without symptoms. according to the 0ns, covid infections in the uk fell last week for the first time since late november. it s estimated 3.4 million people have the virus. infections came down in much of the uk, including in england where one in 20 people at the virus and in wales with one in 25 and scotland won in 20. in england, where one in 20 people had to the virus, and in wales, with one in 25 and scotland, one in 20. but in northern ireland also with one in 20, the trend was said to be uncertain. and the head of the 0ns thinks this is a significant moment. we are certainly seeing a major turning point, and we are certainly seeing a real reduction. the question i ask is that we are not sure yet whether that s going to continue to go down. ministers want to end self isolation rules in march, or even before if possible, and say they will be reviewed. it is reasonable to think, just as we are living with flu, for example, we don t requ
omicron we know that if we look at infections of people with covid in hospital, we estimate around 40% of the people with covid in hospital are there not because they have got covid, they happen to have covid. it s what you might call an incidental infection. they are not their being treated for covid. that s almost double the percentage we saw with delta. that s important because the deaths that are being reported of people that were covid positive, within 28 days of passing away, many of those people would not have necessarily died of covid. what we are seeing in hospitals, that proportion of roughly 40% not being there because of covid is an indicator of that. what susan might expand on, the 0ns has very detailed
job vacancies in the uk soared to a record high of more than 1.2 million between october and december. the new figures from the 0ns are the first to exclude the impact of the government s furlough scheme, which ended in september. but the figures also show that average pay rises are failing to keep up with the increase in the cost of living. here s ben king. you should be respected, you should be well paid and you should have decent facilities. staff are hard to find these days and these refuse workers in eastbourne know it. the council offered a 7% pay rise but they say they are worth more, and with prices increasing fast, 7% does not go as far as it used to. i think it is not only the cost of living, people understanding they are poorer coming to work, it work poverty is growing. they know the market forces and the catalyst, a dispute a few months ago,
sampling and genomic sequencing capability. we also welcome confirmation that the uk wide covid infection survey conducted by the ons infection survey conducted by the 0ns will continue. it is essential, however, that it continues at scale, and we will seek to work with the uk government to ensure that this is the case. this surveillance capacity it will help us identify new threats rapidly stop it will also help us assess the potential severity of any new threat and quickly determine the appropriate level of response. a strategic update we are publishing today sets out a clear framework or any decisions we may have to take in future in response to new developments. i want to stress, this is intended as a contingency. we do hope of course we never have to use it. however it does recognise the ongoing challenge that covid presents and sets out three broad levels of future potential threat. low, medium and high. it also offers