Winter bug 'surging' in UK hospitals with cases up 80 per cent - three key signs
Winter bug 'surging' in UK hospitals with cases up 80 per cent - three key signs
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Brits have been urged to look out for three key symptoms of a dreaded winter bug that is “surging” in hospitals. An update from the NHS revealed that norovirus levels are currently 80 percent higher than they were this time last year. New data shows that 784 patients a day were in hospital with norovirus last week (week ending 19 January 2025). That is up from 650 the previous week. Levels are the highest seen in hospitals in any January since 2020.
As a result of these pressures, hospitals across the country remain “extremely busy” with 96 percent of adult hospital beds occupied by patients. Almost one in seven of these (13,710) were taken up by patients who did not need to be in hospital and were well enough to be discharged, the NHS reported.
It is not just norovirus that is contributing to these pressures. Cases of flu, Covid and RSV remain high. Flu rates have dropped since their peak but remain almost two and a half times higher than last year, with 3,833 patients in hospital with the illness on average each day last week, including 176 in critical care.
There were more than a thousand patients on average (1,071) in hospital with COVID-19 every day last week. A total of 29 children on average were in hospital with RSV each day – a fall from the previous week but up 91 percent compared to the same time last year.
