National Flu And Covid-19 Surveillance Reports Published

24th December 2021

Weekly national influenza and COVID-19 report, monitoring coronavirus (COVID-19) activity, seasonal flu and other seasonal respiratory illnesses.

The main points from this week's national influenza and COVID-19 surveillance report are:

COVID-19 activity has increased across the UK. Case rates rose in all age groups except those aged 5 to 9, and there has been an increase in the number of acute respiratory infection incidents in England.

Case rates were highest in those aged 20 to 29, with a weekly rate of 1741.0 per 100,000 population.

The lowest case rates were in those aged 80 and above, with a weekly rate of 112.7 per 100,000 population.

Weekly case rates per 100,000 population were highest in London at 1732.6.

Case rates per 100,000 were lowest in the North East with a weekly rate of 470.1.

The number of acute respiratory infection incidents (suspected outbreaks) in England was 825 in week 50, compared to 621 in the previous week.

The hospital admission rate for week 50 was 7.16 per 100,000 population, in the previous week it was 7.39 per 100,000 population.

Hospital admission rates for COVID-19 were highest in London, with a rate of 10.53 per 100,000 population.

The highest hospital admission rates continue to be those aged 85 and above.

Professor Steven Riley, Director General of Data, Analytics and Surveillance at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), said:

New cases of COVID-19 continue to climb across nearly every age group and nationally daily cases have reached over 100,000 as Omicron spreads through our communities. This should act as another urgent reminder that everyone must do all they can to contain the spread of this virus.