Latest daily case numbers from the UK show they are at their lowest point since mid-December, but Sunday’s figures do not include new Scottish infections.

A total of 70,924 people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland tested positive for coronavirus in the last 24 hours, the government reported on Sunday. The figures normally include cases from Scotland. This is a fall from the 81,713 on Saturday.

The last time new case numbers were this low was 14 December. Since then, more than 4 million positive tests in the UK have been reported, as Omicron took hold.

Another 88 people have died with 28 days of a positive Covid test, taking the death toll to 151,187.

A total of 174,233 people have died with Covid-19 on their death certificate.

A small-scale US study has found a significant proportion of people remain infectious beyond the five-day self-isolation period recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control.

Forbes reports more than half of the cases examined in the Harvard University study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, were still contagious on the fifth day and 25% on the sixth day. Only 13% were still infectious on day seven.

A three-week-old baby has died from Covid-19 in Qatar, the health ministry said on Sunday, reporting a rare child fatality from the illness in the Gulf country.

The emirate’s public health ministry said in a statement:

The death is the second child to have died in the country since the pandemic began, it added.

Child deaths from Covid-19...

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