The number of people who have tested positive for COVID in the UK in seven days has risen to 3,760,200, latest figures show.
In England, an estimated 3,147,700 people had coronavirus in the week to July 14, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
There were 340,900 cases in Scotland, 183,200 in Wales and 88,400 in Northern Ireland in the same period.
Last week, the estimated number of people who tested positive for the virus was 3,498,700.
This means an estimated 261,500 more infections compared to last week, an increase of 7%.
But last week’s increase was 29%, suggesting the infection rate may be slowing.
Nearly 3.8 million is the highest weekly estimate of total infections since mid-April, but still below the record 4.9 million reached in late March.
Rates were highest among people aged 16 to 24 and 50 to 69, and lowest among children aged six to 11.
While rates have risen in most regions of the UK, some are leveling off or even starting to fall.
However, it seems too early to tell if these declines will be sustained.
The majority of infections currently are Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5, accounting for 89.2% of infections in the week ending July 3.
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The ONS said that in England, the latest statistics showed higher levels of infection than during the peak of the Alpha variant in January 2021.
At that time, however, “hospital admissions were 2 times higher and deaths 14 times higher,” he added.
“Infections have generally continued to rise in England, reaching levels similar to those seen in April during wave BA.2,” said Kara Steel, ONS senior statistician for the infection survey for COVID-19.
“However, we are seeing some uncertain trends in the latest data across the rest of the UK, some English regions and across some age groups.
“It’s too early to tell if this latest wave is starting to peak, but we’ll continue to monitor the data closely.”
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Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, said it was important to remember that ONS data “is always about two or three weeks behind the curve of the epidemic, in terms of new infections (incidence)”.
He added: “Other sources (Department of Health dashboard and Zoe app data) have suggested that for England the number of new infections peaked around 8/9/10 July and are now in decline
“The suggestion that new infections are now falling is further supported by the fact that new hospital admissions are also falling, although I suspect the data over the next few days may be confounded by increased hospitalizations due to the heat wave”.