OVER the course of the pandemic, different parts of the UK have adopted and lifted restrictions at different times.
While infection and death rates from Covid are broadly similar, the past summer has seen the virus follow distinct trajectories in each of the four nations, for reasons which are not entirely clear.
Northern Ireland remains the only part of the UK yet to reopen its nightclubs but suffered a spike in cases over summer, while in England - which forged ahead with the fastest and most comprehensive lifting of restrictions on its July 19 'Freedom Day' - has experienced something of a plateau.
Here, the Herald taks a look at the current state of play for Covid in each of the four UK nations.
CASES
Based on infections confirmed through testing, Wales is currently the only part of the UK where Covid is still clearly on the rise.
Infections in Wales have been climbing steadily since the end of July, rising four-fold from a daily average of 637.6 per day on July 31 to 2,723.3 per day by September 17.
READ MORE: The beginning of the end? The 'surprising' fall in Scotland's Covid cases
England experienced an initial summer surge coinciding with the Euros football tournament. These peaked at a daily average of around 44,000 per day on July 16, but by July 29 - ten days after 'Freedom Day' - England was recording feweer than 23,000 cases per day. Since then infections have fluctuated between around 20,700 and 27,400, with signs of a potential uptick since September 13.
In Northern Ireland, cases climbed rapidly between the beginning of June and the middle of August - going from a daily average of 69.4 on June 1 to a peak of 1,680.9 by August 19. Since then they have fallen by 30%.
Scotland's Covid summer was characterised by two Delta waves - one coinciding with the Euros in late June and a second following the move into 'Beyond Zero' on August 9 and the return of schools around a week later. Since peaking at a daily average (by specimen date) of 6438.6 on September 3, cases have halved.
The daily data reflects cases identified by testing when people present with symptoms. The true prevalence of the virus is much higher, however, once asymptomatic infections or cases not picked up by testing (for example, because people do not get tested) are included.
The Office for National Statistics estimates that one in 45 people in Scotland were infected in the week ending September 18, compared to one in 60 in Wales and Northern Ireland, and one in 90 in England.
VACCINATION
For most of the summer, Wales was in the lead in terms of having the hgihest share of its population fully vaccinated.
However, over the past two weeks, Scotland - where vccine passports will be introduced from Friday for entry into nightclubs and large events - has caught up.
READ MORE: Vaccine passport errors leave Falkirk chemist £400 out of pocket
As of September 26, 70.02% of Scotland's total population and 84.1% of those over-16 were fully vaccinated compared to 66.29%/82% in England and 63.54%/80.3% in Northern Ireland.
In Wales, where data is only available up to Friday September 24, coverage was 69.99%/85.1%
Wales is set to introduce its Covdi pass scheme from October 11 which will require people to be either fully vaccinated or have evidence of a negative test for entry into nightclubs and larger events.
England has scrapped plans for its vaccine passport - originally due to take effect at the end of September - while Northern Ireland has not yet reached a decision.
As of September 26, Scotland was administering the highest number of first dose vaccinations in the UK at 767 per 100,000 compared to 703 per 100,000 in England and 461 per 100,000 in Northern Ireland.
As of September 24, however, Wales was significantly ahead on 1,022 per 100,000.
HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS
As a lag indicator for cases, hospital admissions tend to rise and fall around seven to 10 days behind infections.
In Scotland, Covid hospital admissions are now falling having peaked at 158 per day on September 10 - the highest level since January.
In England, like cases, hospital admissions have remained fairly flat over the summer. They peaked at 793 per day on July 24 but were averaging 606 per day by September 18.
In Northern Ireland, admissions were at a fairly high level from late July through until early September, peaking at 47.6 per day on September 5. By September 20 that had fallen to 29.3.
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Although figures are available for Wales, they are not comparable to those for the other three nations as Wales include suspected Covid-19 patients while the other nations include only confirmed cases.
However, on that basis confirmed and suspected Covid admissions in Wales have been rising since mid-August, tripling from around 13.7 on August 13 to 37.9 per day by September 20.
R Number and Prevalence
The R number is an estimate of how many people each infected person is, on average, passing the virus on to.
If the R is above one, the epidemic is growing; any number below one means it is shrinking.
On the basis of current estimates Covid is spreding fastest in Wales where every 100 infected people are infecting up to 120 others.
On the basis of confirmed cases per 100,000 population, the prevalence of Covid is currently highest in Wales, at 614.7 cases for every 100,000 people over the past seven days.
This is followed by Scotland and Wales, while England - the only one of the four nations which also includes positive cases logged from lateral flow devices - currently has half the rate of Wales, on 302.6 cases per 100,000.
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