Over the past week, at least a dozen hospitals have declared critical incidents as the rise in flu admissions and respiratory illnesses has led to “exceptionally high demands”.
Hospitals in Birmingham, Cornwall, Hampshire, Liverpool, Northamptonshire and Plymouth have been among those affected, with figures showing the number of people admitted to hospital in England with flu quadrupled last month.
“I don’t think it helped that the flu vaccine was offered later this year, compared with last, for some groups,” Dr Simon Williams, a behavioural scientist and public health researcher at Swansea University, has said. “However, it is not unprecedented to have a December spike in flu cases: we saw something similar in 2022.”
Is flu causing more problems than normal at this time of year?
Latest data from the UK…