The positive rate of COVID-19 at the sentinel hospitals has surged to 22.3% and remains the highest, but the upward trend is starting to slow down.

The latest report from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention on national surveillance of acute respiratory infectious diseases shows that in week 31 of 2026, the positivity rates of respiratory samples from outpatient and emergency visits at sentinel hospitals across the country indicate that COVID-19 continues to rank first among the top three pathogens, with a positivity rate of 22.3%, an increase of 1.9 percentage points compared to the previous week. Following closely are the influenza virus and enteroviruses, with positivity rates of 13.3% and 4.1%, respectively, which represent decreases of 0.9 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points from the previous week. Among hospitalized cases of severe acute respiratory infections, COVID-19 also remains the top pathogen, with a positivity rate of 8.2%, down 1.3 percentage points from the previous week; influenza ranks second with a positivity rate of 5.8%, down 0.4 percentage points; and human bocavirus ranks third with a positivity rate of 5.5%, up 1.3 percentage points.