Covid-19 rates are increasing steeply among secondary school children, according to the latest statistics.

The number of positive cases has grown in all age groups, but older teenagers and young adults continue to have the highest Covid rate, and numbers are increasing in the secondary school age bracket, according to a survey by the Office for National Statistics.

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Although the ONS warns there is a degree of uncertainty in the estimations by individual age groups, the trend has been highlighted in the report.

Coronavirus: ‘Rates increasing’ among secondary school students

The report reads: “Rates appear to be steeply increasing among secondary school children.”

The percentage of young people in England in the age bracket from Year 7 to Year 11 estimated to be positive for Covid-19 on nose and throat swabs increased from 0.17 per cent on 12 September to 2.01 per cent on 23 October.

The pace of the growth has picked up in October: it was 1.01 per cent on 14 October.

Estimations are based on statistical modelling of nose and throat swab results.

The survey, delivered in partnership with the University of Oxford, University of Manchester, Public Health England and the Wellcome Trust, publishes weekly estimations of the number of infections across the UK.