172 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid in the UK.
It brought the total death toll to 125,343, according to Public Health England statistics.
An additional 6,609 people tested positive for the virus over the last 24 hours, with a total of 40,983 new confirmed cases over the past week , a 7% reduction on the seven days prior.
Figures released earlier from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that around one in 270 people in private households in England had coronavirus between February 28 and March 6, the equivalent of 200,600 people.
This is down from around one in 220, or 248,100 people, for the previous week. It is the lowest figure since the week to 24 September.
In Walesaround one in 365 people are estimated to have had Covid-19down from one in 285 the week before.
The figures in Northern Ireland, showed around one in 310 people were infected, up from one in 325 while the estimate for Scotland was around one in 320 people, up from one in 335 the previous week.
Sarah Crofts, senior statistician for the Covid-19 Infection Survey, said:
“We are seeing a mixed picture across the UK this week. It’s reassuring to see infection levels in the majority of English regions also continuing to decrease – however, it’s important for us to remain cautious and closely monitor those regions that are not showing a clear decrease. These are in the south of England, Yorkshire and the Humber and the West Midlands.”
The latest estimate for the R rate for the UK is between 0.6 and 0.8, down from 0.7 and 0.9 last week.
