Official Statistics

National flu report summary: 24 October 2019 (week 43)

Updated 1 October 2020

1. Main points: data up to week 42, 2019

Data up to week 42 (ending 20 October 2019) shows:

• during week 42, all influenza activity indicators are below baseline
• the impact of flu on healthcare services is below baseline for hospitalisations and for ICU and HDU influenza admissions

The full weekly flu report this summary is based on, accompanying spreadsheet of data and slideset are available from weekly national flu reports: 2019 to 2020 season.

2. Surveillance scheme summaries

2.1 Community

Data from outbreak surveillance shows:

• there have been 35 new acute respiratory outbreaks reported in the past 7 days
• 32 outbreaks were reported from care homes where 2 tested positive for influenza A(not subtyped) and one for a co-infection of influenza A(unknown subtype) and rhinovirus
• 1 outbreak was reported from a school with no test results available
• 1 outbreak was reported from a hospital
• the remaining outbreak was reported from the Other settings category and tested positive for Influenza A(unknown subtype)

2.2 Primary care

Data from primary care surveillance shows:

• the rate of influenza-like illness (ILI) was below baseline threshold level
• the overall weekly ILI GP consultation rate was 5.5 per 100,000 in week 42 compared to 5.0 per 100,000 registered population in the previous week in participating GP practices for England
• in the devolved administrations, ILI rates were below baseline threshold levels for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales

2.3 Secondary care

Data from secondary care surveillance shows:

• hospitalisation rate observed was below baseline impact levels, with a rate of 0.20 per 100,000 in week 42 compared to 0.30 per 100,000 trust catchment population in the previous week, for England (19 NHS Trusts)
• ICU and HDU admission rate observed was below baseline impact levels, with a rate of 0.02 per 100,000 in week 42 compared to 0.02 per 100,000 trust catchment population in the previous week, for England (127 out of 143 NHS Trusts)
• there were no influenza admissions reported from the 6 severe respiratory failure centres in the UK

2.4 All-cause mortality

Data from all-cause mortality surveillance shows:

• no statistically significant excess all-cause mortality by week of death was seen overall and by age group in England in week 42
• in the devolved administrations, no statistically significant excess all-cause mortality for all ages was observed in Wales and Northern Ireland in week 42 and for Scotland in week 40 2019

2.5 Microbiological surveillance

Data from microbiological surveillance shows:

• in primary care, eight samples tested positive for influenza (1 A(H1N1)pdm09, 3 A(H3) and 1 A(unknown subtype) and three influenza B) through the UK GP sentinel swabbing schemes in week 42
• in secondary care influenza percent positivity was 2.3%, below baseline threshold levels
• a total of 35 detections were recorded through the DataMart scheme (6 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, 20 influenza A(H3), 6 influenza A(not subtyped) and 3 influenza B).

2.6 Vaccination

Data from the GP patient, healthcare worker and primary school-age children flu vaccine uptake programmes shows:

• up to week 42 2019, in 40.6% of GP practices in England, the provisional proportion of people who had received the 2019 to 2020 influenza vaccine in targeted groups was 12.5% in under 65 years in a clinical risk group, 14.7% in pregnant women and 47.2% in those aged 65 and over
• up to week 42 2019, in 96.6% of GP practices reporting for the childhood collection the provisional proportion vaccinated was 0.1% in 2 year olds and 3 year olds respectively

3. International situation

• in the temperate zones of the southern hemisphere, influenza activity was low in most countries, and appeared to decrease in Chile after a second wave of influenza activity of predominately B viruses.
• in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, influenza activity remained at inter-seasonal levels in most countries; however activity appeared to have started across the countries of the Arabian Peninsula.
• worldwide, seasonal influenza A viruses continued to account for the majority of detections, though the proportion of influenza B viruses increased in recent weeks. ##Further information

See ‘seasonal influenza: guidance, data and analysis’ for further information on the symptoms, diagnosis, management, surveillance and epidemiology of seasonal influenza (flu).

See ‘sources of UK flu data: influenza surveillance in the UK’ for further information and guidance on the surveillance schemes we use to track seasonal influenza.