There were 903 patients in hospital in the week ending 23 March, almost two-thirds (62.3%) above the previous record for this time of year.
Health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting said: ‘As we move into spring, the pressures that remain on the health service are a stark reminder that we cannot take our eye off the ball.
‘Now is the time to take stock and learn the lessons from this winter which, through our upcoming urgent and emergency care plan, can help shorten waiting times in A&E and reduce ambulance delays next winter. Through the Government's Plan for Change, we will make our NHS fit for the future.'
While current norovirus levels are down from the mid-February mid-winter peak of 1,160, figures showed the decline has slowed. Flu cases, meanwhile, fell to around 1,044 from 1,174 last week.
Over nine in 10 adult hospital beds were occupied (94%) and, for the 12th week running, around one in seven beds were taken up by patients who no longer needed to be there (13,388 of 95,295). Over half of those patients have been in hospital for more than three weeks because of delays discharging patients to settings like social or community care.
Emergency services continued to respond to persistent high levels of demand with 96,452 ambulance handovers last week alone, up from 94,755 in the previous week.
Ambulance handovers over 30 minutes fell by more than half to 17,288 hours from 49,002 hours in early January.
