Covid cases rates have begun to fall in England across every age group following very high spikes over the festive period and into the New Year.

In the seven days to 5 January, the rate of infection fell to 1,871.1 cases per 100,000 people, down from a peak of 1,944.6 on 4 January – but still a week-on-week increase.

Cases are still high across the entire population, however, with more than 500 positive cases for every 100,000 people in every age group – including vulnerable elderly people.

Scientists had long warned about the dangers of writing off Omicron until the effects had been seen in older people.

Omicron had initially spread amongst younger groups before passing into the older population – helped by increased inter-generational mixing over Christmas and New Year.

NationalWorld has created a heat map showing how cases spread from the young to the old.

In the week to 5 January, the infection rate for people aged 8 and above stood at 760.3 per 100,000, 24% higher than it had been a week earlier on 29 December.

And 60 English councils have more than 1,000 cases for every 100,000 people aged 80 or over.

Here are the 20 councils with the highest number of cases in the week to 6 January in that age group.