The latest infection surveillance report from @ONS is out. The headline numbers are the same as in the ad-hoc update earlier this week as the data is still to Jan 2, but we now have some more detail. In England, infection levels have increased dramatically. Let's take a look.1/11 
For England it's estimated that an average of 1.12m people had the infection during the week ended Jan 2nd, representing 2.1% of the community population, or 1 in 50. This rate has doubled in a month. 2/11
Regionally there are some signs that London is levelling off, but at an exceptionally high rate of 3.5%. The West Midlands, East and SE might also be levelling, but infections are still growing elsewhere. 3/11
The effect of the school holiday would appear to have resulted in a reduction for children. Elsewhere recent increases appear in most age groups to be levelling off, with a reduction in the 35 to 49 group. The 1% rate in the over 70s is concerning though. 4/11
Turning to Wales, there's evidence that the earlier lockdown may be starting to have an effect, with the rate modelled to have reduced to 1.45%. As with all the devolved administrations, the confidence intervals are wider though, due to smaller samples. 5/11
In Northern Ireland rates continue to be broadly level, and at 0.50% are much lower than elsewhere in the UK. The province has had a more sustained period of lockdown, and since mid November has kept prevalence broadly at this lower level. 6/11
Scotland is modelled to be increasing again, to 0.87%, although if you look at the confidence intervals on the left, you could just about draw a level line through all of them. Like NI, prevalence has been kept more stable, though at a higher level than in the province. 7/11
Next we have some interesting data on the rise of the new variant showing how England has been affected much more rapidly and to a much greater extent. Of interest, the Welsh lockdown does appear to be suppressing it so far. 8/11
No surprises with these regional graphs, showing how badly London has been hit, and to a lesser extent the surrounding regions. You can see how it is starting to exert its influence elsewhere in England though. 9/11
Finally, put in % terms, in London over 80% of positive results were attributable to the new variant, with the East and SE not far behind. In contrast, the very low level in Wales is particularly notable, (albeit with a very wide CI). 10/11
This random sampling included (for England) 523,452 tests in the last 6 weeks, of which 6,104 were positive. Thanks to the ONS and partner organisations shown for their continued work to provide this valuable insight into the pandemic's development. 11/11 END
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