{"id":407465,"date":"2025-09-08T09:29:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T09:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/407465\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T09:29:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T09:29:09","slug":"covid-positive-tests-hit-10-month-high-among-hospital-patient-symptoms-to-watch-out-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/407465\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid positive tests hit 10-month high among hospital patient – symptoms to watch out for"},"content":{"rendered":"

The number of positive COVID-19 tests among hospital patients has hit its highest level in 10 months, figures show. In England<\/a>, the proportion of hospital patients with respiratory symptoms who tested positive for coronavirus<\/a> reached 9.3% on August 29.<\/p>\n

This is the highest hospital positivity rate since October 30 and 55% higher than it was a month earlier, according to data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). Experts have told The i Paper<\/a> that the hospital positivity rate is much higher than for the population as a whole and is not the same as the figure for those admitted to wards due to the virus. Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick, told the same publication that it wasn’t surprising positivity rates were at a 10-month high.<\/p>\n

He said a combination of the return to work and school after the summer holidays on top of cooler weather and waning immunity will have contributed to an increase in the virus’s spread.<\/p>\n

Mr Young said the same factors would be made worse as new variants of the virus develop and access to the free autumn-winter vaccine booster is limited to those aged 75 and over and the most clinically vulnerable.<\/p>\n

A new strain of Covid<\/a> has been circulating in Britain since August, making up a significant proportion of cases in England.<\/p>\n

Stratus has two variants: XFG and XFG.3. Experts suggested the newer variant has a unique symptom compared with other strains in that it can lead people to develop a hoarse voice.<\/p>\n

While it accounted for a proportion of new cases last month, experts appeared unconcerned by its having developed.<\/p>\n

Dr Alex Allen, consultant epidemiologist of UKHSA said: “It is normal for viruses to mutate and change over time.”<\/p>\n

The World Health Organisation designated XFG as a variant “under monitoring”. It said the additional public health risk it poses is evaluated as low at the worldwide level.<\/p>\n

It also said data did not indicate the variant led to more severe illness or deaths compared with other Covid<\/a> variants in circulation.<\/p>\n

COVID<\/a>-19 symptoms include: a high temperature or shivering; a new, continuous cough; loss or change to your sense of smell or taste; shortness of breath and feeling tired or exhausted.<\/p>\n

Other symptoms are: an aching body, headache, a sore throat, a blocked or runny nose, loss of appetite, diarrhoea, feeling sick or being sick.<\/p>\n

The symptoms are very similar to those of other illnesses, such as colds and flu, according to the NHS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The number of positive COVID-19 tests among hospital patients has hit its highest level in 10 months, figures…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1433,140361,140360,140363,140362,140364,105,211,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-407465","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-coronavirus","9":"tag-coronavirus-latest","10":"tag-coronavirus-news","11":"tag-coronavirus-strain","12":"tag-coronavirus-update","13":"tag-coronavirus-warning","14":"tag-health","15":"tag-nhs","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115167976877012154","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}