The Government and its scientific advisers had been expecting cases to rocket to at least 100,000 every day this autumn, with top SAGE member ‚Professor Lockdown‘ Neil Ferguson claiming they could even top 200,000.

But daily infections now appear to be falling or levelling off in every region of England. The North East, a hotspot for the Indian ‚Delta‘ variant, was the first to see its outbreak peak on July 14, according to the data.