Office for National Statistics has estimated that 567,300 people in England had COVID-19 last week compared to 481,500 the previous week.
It is the first time in three weeks that the rate has risen.
“The percentage of people testing positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19) in England has increased,” the ONS said, adding there had been a sharp increase in London.
The reproduction number, or R value, is now above 1 across the UK, according to figures published by the Government Office for Science and the Sage scientific advisory group.
The scientists estimate the figure is between 1.1 and 1.2. Last week, the R number, which he average number of people each Covid-19 positive person goes on to infect, was between 0.9 and 1.
Meanwhile Boris Johnson said that he hoped that England would not need to go into a third lockdown after Christmas and follow Wales and Northern Ireland in imposing the measure to stop the growing spread of COVID-19.
“Obviously we’re hoping very much that we’ll be able to avoid anything like that,” Johnson told reporters. “But the reality is that the rates of infection have increased very much in the last few weeks.”
