Official Statistics

National flu report summary: 10 October 2019 (week 41)

Updated 1 October 2020

1. Main points: data up to week 40, 2019

Data up to week 40 (ending 6 October 2019) shows:

• during week 40, 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: 2018 to 2019 season.

2. Surveillance scheme summaries

2.1 Community

Data from outbreak surveillance shows:

• there have been 38 new acute respiratory outbreaks reported in the past 7 days
• 35 outbreaks were reported from care homes where 2 tested positive for influenza A(not subtyped)
• 2 outbreaks were from schools where 1 tested positive for influenza A(not subtyped)
• The remaining outbreak was from a hospital and tested positive for influenza A(not subtyped)

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 4.3 per 100,000 registered population 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 0.04 per 100,000 trust catchment population for England (16 NHS Trusts)
• ICU and HDU admission rate observed was below baseline impact levels, with a rate of 0.00 per 100,000 trust catchment population for England (132 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 40
• in the devolved administrations, no statistically significant excess all-cause mortality for all ages was observed in Wales and Northern Ireland in week 40, however excess all-cause mortality was noted in Scotland in week 38 2019

2.5 Microbiological surveillance

Data from microbiological surveillance shows:

• in primary care no samples tested positive for influenza through the UK GP sentinel swabbing schemes in week 40
• in secondary care influenza percent positivity was 1.1%, below baseline threshold levels
• a total of 16 detections were recorded through the DataMart scheme (1 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, 10 influenza A(H3) and 5 influenza A(unknown subtype))

2.6 Vaccination

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

• up to week 40 2019, in 40.7% of GP practices in England, the provisional proportion of people who had received the 2019 to 2020 influenza vaccine in targeted groups was 4.5% in under 65 years in a clinical risk group, 5.1% in pregnant women and 29.3% in those aged 65 and over
• up to week 40 2019, in 40.8% of GP practices reporting for the childhood collection the provisional proportion vaccinated was 0.0% 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, except Chile where a second wave of influenza activity of predominately B viruses was reported
• in the temperate zone of the Northern hemisphere, influenza activity remained at inter-seasonal levels
• worldwide, seasonal influenza subtype A viruses accounted for the majority of detections.

4. 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.