A “tidal wave” of flu infections has led to a 70% increase in hospital cases in England in just seven days, the NHS has said.

An average of 1,861 patients with flu were in hospital every day last week – up from 1,099 in the previous week and 402 at the same time last year.

Flu cases are currently highest among 5 to 14-year-olds, according to the UK Health Security Agency, but adult cases are expected to rise when schools and nurseries close.

Cases of norovirus (the winter vomiting bug) and RSV (a common cause of coughs and colds, and a cause of chest infections in babies) are also on the rise.

NHS England said an average of 837 beds were occupied last week by people with norovirus symptoms – up 10% on the previous week and 64% on last year.

Meanwhile,152 children were in hospital with RSV each day – up from 142 the previous week and 107 last year.

COVID patients took up 1,343 beds, down from 1,390.

Read more on ‘quad-demic’:
What is it – and how you can protect yourself

The mix of different illnesses has sparked fears of a “quad-demic” this winter.

It refers to the “four very common viral illnesses that circulate every winter in different peaks,” GP David Lloyd told Sky News Breakfast.

The risk and complication rate of people catching all four at once heightens at this time of the year as people are spending more time indoors with friends and family.

Vaccination drive

Eligible people are urged to get vaccinated as soon as possible to avoid picking up a bout of festive flu.

The NHS provides vaccinations against flu, COVID and RSV.

Over-65s, pregnant women, and people with certain health conditions are among those who can get a free flu vaccination at a pharmacy.

Jabs are also being administered at places such as Christmas markets, football clubs, and supermarkets.

RSV vaccines are recommended during pregnancy – to protect the baby when it’s born, and for adults aged 75 to 79.

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, the boss of NHS England, said: “The tidal wave of flu cases and other seasonal viruses hitting hospitals is really concerning for patients and for the NHS – the figures are adding to our ‘quad-demic’ worries.”

He added: “With one week left to book your vaccine, I cannot stress enough the importance of getting booked in to protect yourself against serious illness and to avoid ‘festive flu’.”

Health Secretary Wes Streeting echoed the call, urging people to “protect themselves, their family, and the NHS by getting vaccinated before it’s too late”.

Busiest-ever November for A&Es

Other NHS figures show the overall waiting list for treatment decreased for the third month in a row.

It went from 7.57 million in September to 7.54 million in October, after peaking at 7.77 million in September last year.

People forced to wait longer than Keir Starmer’s long-term goal of 18 weeks also decreased slightly, from 3.14 million in September to 3.11 million in October.

The number waiting a year or more (234,885) was the lowest since December 2020 and down from a peak of 436,127 in March 2021.

Read more from Sky News:
Thieves using sticky gloves as e-bike crimes soar
Corrie actor’s husband dies after ‘jumping pool’

Meanwhile, it was the busiest November on record in A&Es in England, with 2.31 million attendances.

The number of patients being seen within the four-hour target slipped from 58.1% in October to 57% in November.

For ambulances, the average handover time was 42 minutes 59 seconds – longer than the 39 minutes 29 seconds in the same week last year.

Some 16.3% of handovers last week, or 14,672 patients, were delayed by more than an hour.

Coronation Street actor Carol Royle says her “heart is aching” following her husband’s death, caused by a sudden brain haemorrhage after jumping into a freezing swimming pool.

The actress, 70, had been married to her husband Julian Spear for almost five decades and the couple had two children together, according to ITV.

Royle, who plays Anthea Deering in the soap, said in an Instagram post: “I am desperately sorry to post that we lost my wonderful husband, Julian Spear [on] 9 December.

“Perfectly fit man but jumped into a freezing pool which he assumed was heated as per usual yesterday, and he developed a sudden massive brain haemorrhage – our hearts are aching.”

Royle joined the Coronation Street cast in 2024 and had previously starred in Casualty, Doctors, and Heartbeat.

Her husband worked in the music industry, and was the son of actor Bernard Spear who starred in the 1968 classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

We’re out on the street for a matter of seconds before PCs David Parker and Jake Dean shoot off on their bikes through the pre-Christmas traffic. They are in pursuit of an e-scooter being ridden on the pavement near London’s Liverpool Street Station.

It’s illegal to use privately-owned e-scooters in public in the UK. The officers seize it and take it to “the cage” – a lock-up behind nearby Bishopsgate police station – from where it will be taken away and crushed.

Then, the officers are straight onto their next target – a powerful e-bike that can reach speeds far higher than the 15.5 mph allowed by law.

City of London Police sergeant Stu Ford says they could be out doing this all day, every day. They’ve confiscated more than 400 electric vehicles, which can hit speeds of up to 75 mph, in the 18 months since he relaunched the force’s bike unit, to help tackle phone snatching along with drug and road offences.

Many of those belonged to food delivery riders or commuters, including a high-powered stockbroker, who, he says, may not have been aware they were breaking the law. But they’re “also being used for all sorts of criminality” adds Sergeant Ford.

Figures obtained by Sky News suggest crimes involving e-bikes and e-scooters have soared by more than 730% in the last five years.

The data released by police forces in England and Wales in response to freedom of information requests reveals tens of thousands of offences, such as theft, robbery and burglary, have been linked to the vehicles since 2019.

The figures also include crimes such as drug trafficking, stalking, arson, sexual offences including rape, violent crimes and weapons offences.

Sgt Ford says he’s not surprised by the rise in crime, with the availability of electric vehicles so much greater than five years ago.

He says criminals are attracted to them because of their relatively low cost compared to motorbikes or mopeds – a good model can sell for under £1,000 – and discreteness – they’re not picked up by automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras.

A total of 11,266 crimes were recorded in the year 2023/24 that mentioned electric bike, e-bike, electric scooter, or e-scooter, up from 1,354 in 2019/20 – a 732% rise, according to the data released by 36 of the 43 territorial forces in England and Wales.

In one incident in North Wales last year, a woman and her partner were followed by two males on an e-bike, one who was holding a knife, in an apparent bid to steal their scooter.

The same force disclosed details of crimes including a victim who was robbed of his e-bike by people “brandishing machetes and knives”, and another who was repeatedly punched to the head by an offender who tried to steal his electric vehicle.

The true figures will be far higher as two of the country’s largest forces – the Metropolitan Police and West Midlands Police – were unable to supply data.

Separate figures released by the Met, however, show 352 robberies, or around one a day, were committed last year in London alone by a suspect riding an e-bike.

The figure was a rise of more than 40% from the 250 robberies in 2022/23 and a more than 260% increase from the 97 the previous year, although the force didn’t start recording such offences until mid-June 2021.

“I’m not surprised there’s a huge increase in crimes in relation to e-scooters and e-bikes,” says Sgt Ford, who acknowledges “phone snatchers are getting very good at what they do”.

They’re “good cyclists” who often use bikes that have been illegally converted to have a motor more powerful than the 250 watts which is legally allowed, and even wear special sticky gloves so they can grab onto the phones, he says.

Sgt Ford says many are members of organised gangs, with different riders sometimes seen using the same bikes around the capital.

The number of “snatch thefts” soared by 150% with an estimated 78,000 people losing their phones or bags in England and Wales up to March 2024, according to the latest government figures.

Joyce Ong had her iPhone snatched out of her hand by an e-bike rider wearing a hoodie as she went to order an Uber outside North Harrow station, in northwest London, on Halloween.

“It was dark. There was no one about and someone came along from behind me – a dark shadowy figure – and snatched my phone while I was calling an Uber,” she says.

“He just rode from behind on the pavement at a very high speed.”

Joyce says she was left “shocked and confused”, and also inconvenienced by not being able to use her phone to run her business.

She says she reported the crime to the Metropolitan Police but got the impression they couldn’t prioritise her case. Three weeks later, she received a notification that her phone had ended up in Shenzhen, a city in southeastern China.

“I do think the Met Police may not have all the resources they need. It seems to be getting a bit out of control,” she says.

The Met said they’re “taking action to clamp down on phone thieves and robbers, with proactive and neighbourhood policing teams increasing patrols, including in plain clothes”.

“We are also working with local businesses to share information and using a range of tactics and technologies to bring perpetrators to justice.”

Last month the force said Kymani Wilson, 22, from Brent, northwest London, and Claude Parkinson, 25, from Islington, north London, were jailed after committing mobile phone robberies and thefts while riding e-bikes in the upmarket boroughs of Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea.

Sgt Ford insists police are “catching up” and his team have also enjoyed some high-profile successes, with other forces around the country now coming to him for advice.

Sonny Stringer, 28, from Islington, north London, was jailed for two years in August after stealing 24 phones in a single morning. He was doing speeds of up to 50mph on an electric motorbike.

The vehicles have also been linked to stabbings and shootings. Police in Birmingham found a loaded gun after tackling masked e-bike rider Antonio Balu, 25, when he raced away after officers spotted him acting suspiciously, and he was later jailed for five years.

They are also increasingly popular with drug dealers, says Sgt Ford. “They can go around almost unseen,” he says. “If you’re in a vehicle, then you’ve got a registration plate or a motorbike or a moped. With these, you’re just riding a bike around.”

Some shops, he says, are selling powerful e-bikes for up to £2,000 without warning customers they can’t be used on public roads, while there are kits available online which allow people to convert a pedal cycle into an illegal e-bike relatively easily.

“Food delivery guys will ride up onto the pavements, weaving in and out of people. We get accidents happening more and more now where they’re hitting pedestrians,” he says.

“It is increasing all the time and it’s really dangerous. The speeds that these get up to – we’ve had ones that will do 75mph – the speed of a motorcycle.

“And if something that weighs the best part of 100kg hits you at 50, 60 mph, you’re probably not going to be around to talk about it.”