UK sees rise in flu and COVID-19 as winter season begins

Cases of influenza and COVID-19 are rising across the UK as the 2025-26 winter respiratory season begins, health authorities said, with hospital admissions for COVID-19 up sharply and flu activity increasing particularly among younger adults. The UK Health Security Agency published its first weekly surveillance report of the season on October 9, showing rising positivity for both viruses, mixed activity of respiratory syncytial virus, and a notable uptick in several common cold viruses.

The agency reported that COVID-19 hospital admissions in England rose by 60 percent between August 18 and September 18. The seasonal COVID-19 vaccination programme began in early October, days after the jump in admissions. The UKHSA also said influenza A, the strain most associated with severe illness, is circulating and that last winter’s flu vaccine markedly reduced severe outcomes, preventing almost 40 percent of hospitalisations in people aged over 65 and reducing hospitalisations by about 75 percent among 2 to 17 year olds who were vaccinated.

“Flu and COVID-19 levels are starting to slowly increase,” Dr Jamie Lopez Bernal, consultant epidemiologist at UKHSA, said, urging people who are...