With lockdown being eased it’s not only beer gardens and shops that are back. So is the common cold.
The reopening of school gates in March appears to have unleashed a torrent of rhinovirus, a bug that accounts for a large share of coughs and sniffles.
“Rhinoviruses, which are the commonest cause of the common cold, have rocketed in the last few weeks,” Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said. “Schools and playgroups are where it’s spreading.”
Data from Public Health England shows that the share of tests coming back positive for rhinovirus has risen significantly since January.
For children aged from 5 to 14, nearly 30 per cent of tests were positive at the beginning of April compared with
