An average 1,160 patients a day were in hospital with norovirus, up by 22% surge on the previous week (948) and more than double the same period last year (509).
Health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting, said: ‘Today's data shows the NHS is continuing to grapple with winter pressures across the country and I want to thank all the NHS staff working tirelessly in difficult conditions.
‘We have taken action to support the NHS this winter, including delivering millions of vaccinations for people up and down the country, rolling out the RSV vaccine for the first time and ending the resident doctor strikes so that staff are on the front line, not the picket line for the first winter in three years.
‘It will take time, but through our Plan for Change, we will get the NHS back on its feet.'
Flu cases in hospital have continued to fall but are still putting pressure on front-line services. An average 1,755 patients with flu were in beds last week, including 87 in critical care, down 14% on the week before (2,039).
There were 22 children on average in hospital with RSV each day, up 83% from 12 the week before and 144% higher than nine last year. The number of patients with Covid rose slightly on the week before, up 3% from 952 to 984.
Pressure on hospital capacity remained high with 95.4% of adult beds occupied, and a total of 97,152 patients in hospital each day.
Delays discharging patients to settings like social or community care continued to have an impact on capacity, with almost one in seven beds (13,767) taken up by patients who did not need to be there.
Emergency services continued to respond to high levels of demand with 94,356 ambulance handovers, but ambulance handover delays were down a fifth on the same period last year (18,688 hours vs 23,494).
Rory Deighton, acute director at the NHS Confederation, said: ‘NHS leaders and their teams have been working hard in the past few months to provide high quality and timely care to patients. We need to ensure that we do not experience another winter where we have exhausted staff and patient care is being delivered in unsuitable settings, such as corridors again. We look forward to working with the Government and NHS England to resolve the problems of patient flow in the 10-Year Health Plan and social care reform that will make a long-term difference.'
Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive, NHS Providers, said: ‘Hospital wards are almost full while delays discharging patients, often due to a shortage of social or community care, still have a huge impact - with around one in seven beds taken up by people who are ready to continue their recovery at or closer to home. We saw a winter high of 59% of patients fit to be discharged staying in hospital last week.'
