A total of 6.6% of 5,093 respiratory specimens reported through the Respiratory DataMart System were identified as COVID-19. This is a decrease compared to the previous week where 7.6% of 4,362 specimens were found to be COVID-19.
Pillar 1 positivity for this week’s report is 9.2% positivity, resulting in 255 cases, a decrease from 11.0% positivity, resulting in 328 cases in the previous week.
The overall COVID-19 hospital admission rate is 2.84 per 100,000 population, a decrease from 3.45 per 100,000 in the previous week.
ICU and high dependency units (HDU) admission rates for this week’s report remained low and stable, at 0.12 per 100,000 population.
Hospital admission rates have continued to decrease in most age groups.
Those aged 85 years and over continue to have the highest hospital admission rates; these have continued to decrease this week to 29.52 per 100,000 population from 39.20 per 100,000 in the previous week.
Admission rates among those aged 75 to 84 years have also continued to decrease; this week, the data is 13.29 per 100,000 population compared to 15.37 per 100,000 in the previous week.
Hospital admission rates for COVID-19 are highest in the North West at 4.18 per 100,000 population this week.
A total 65.8% (7,341,043 out of 11,164,326) of all people aged over 65 years who are living and resident in England have been vaccinated with an autumn 2023 COVID-19 booster dose since 1 September 2023.
