COVID infections jumped by a tenth across the UK last week, according to another study that shows children are fuelling the resurgence of Omicron.

According to the Daily Mail, King's College London scientists estimate 160,000 people were falling ill with COVID every day in the week ending 26 January, compared to 145,000 in its previous report.

Cases are now rising in every region, the report said.

The data from the King's team, who work alongside health firm ZOE, shows cases in children are fueling the rise, with infections hitting the highest rate recorded since the pandemic began.

And cases now appear to be spilling over into 35 to 55-year-olds.

Professor Tim Spector, an epidemiologist and lead scientist for the study, said the bounce-back came 'sooner than many expected'.

But he insisted it was 'not surprising' because the start of the school term has been the instigator of resurgences throughout the pandemic, with the highly-infectious virus then crossing over into their parents, school staff and the rest of the wider community.

Professor Spector said cases will 'continue to stay high until spring' due to Omicron's high reinfection rate and the emergence of subvariant BA.2, which experts argue could become dominant within a month because it appears to be even more infectious than its ancestral strain.

(This story was published from a syndicated feed. Only the headline and picture has been edited by FIT.)