Businesses have claimed £849m through the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, providing discounts for more than 160 million meals, new figures show.
Almost 50,000 restaurants and food outlets had made a claim for the scheme by 30 September, according to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
The government's initiative was designed to boost the economy after the first national lockdown, and allowed pubs and restaurants to offer heavily discounted meals on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in August.
But research suggested the scheme caused a significant rise in new coronavirus infections.
According to a study by the University of Warwick, a sharp increase in COVID-19 infection clusters emerged a week after Eat Out to Help Out began.
At that time, between 8% and 17% of newly detected infection clusters could be linked to the scheme, the findings suggested.
Areas where there was a high uptake of Eat Out to Help Out also saw a decline in new infections a week after the scheme drew to a close.
Earlier this month the chancellor declined to rule out further measures similar to Eat Out to Help Out after England's latest lockdown ends next week.
Rishi Sunak told Sky News that the government would look at a "range of things" to "get consumers spending again and people out and about".
He said: "I won't talk about specific measures but more broadly, I think it's right that when we finally exit this, and hopefully next year with testing and maybe indeed vaccines as well, we'll be able to start looking forward to getting back to normal.
Mr Sunak had previously played down a link between his scheme and a rise in coronavirus cases as he cautioned against "jumping to simplistic conclusions".
He told Sky News in October: "What's happening here is pretty much in sync with what's happening around the world in second waves."
