The UK is in the grip of a double whammy of soaring colds and Covid infections, driven by new variants, cooler weather and children going back to school, new figures show . The latest government data indicates that rhinovirus infections – the main cause of the common cold – jumped by a third in the week to Sunday September 22, as the proportion of hospital patients with respiratory symptoms testing positive for the virus increased from 10.6 per cent to 14.
0 per cent. This is their highest level since December. During that same week, the so-called ‘positivity rate’ of Covid tests in hospital patients jumped by 30 per cent, while hospitalisations from Covid rose by 50 per cent to 3.
71 per 100,000 of the population, with the highest admissions rate in the north east of England, according to the UK Heath Security Agency (UKHSA) figures. This compares to 2.0 per 100,000 on 25 August and 4.
7 on 21 July. Positivity rates among hospital patients with symptoms are typically much higher than infection rates in the general population – figures which are not available for the UK outside of winter. But scientists say they give a good indication of trends.
Flu cases, meanwhile, remain relatively low, with a ‘positivity rate’ of about 2 per cent. Peak flu season typically occurs in December and January. “There are a lot of people suffering from runny noses and coughs at the moment.
This is due to a double whammy of infections with the common cold virus (rhinovirus) and with .
