An English Covid-19 study has reported record prevalence in January after an Omicron-fuelled spike in infections, adding that infections had dropped back from their peak but were now plateauing.

Imperial College London found that the prevalence of infections between January 5 and Jan 20 was 4.41 per cent, more than three times higher than it was in December. Although prevalence decreased over the course of the month, the overall trend was unclear by the end of the study period, with cases rising in children and falling in adults.

Omicron had also almost entirely displaced Delta, with only 1pc of sequenced swabs belonging to the formerly dominant variant.

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