Official Statistics

National flu report summary: 12 December 2019 (week 50)

Updated 1 October 2020

1. Main points: data up to week 49, 2019

Data up to week 49 (ending 8 December 2019) shows:

• during week 49, influenza activity has continued to increase for several indicators
• the impact of flu on healthcare services is at moderate intensity levels for hospitalisations and above baseline for ICU/HDU influenza admissions
• the Department of Health and Social Care has issued an alert on the prescription of antiviral medicines by GPs
• respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) continues to circulate in the <5 year olds in England

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 165 new acute respiratory outbreaks reported in the past 7 days
• 49 outbreaks were reported from care homes where 22 tested positive for influenza A
• 17 outbreaks were reported from hospitals where 13 tested positive for influenza A
• 94 outbreaks were reported from schools where 26 tested positive for influenza A
• the remaining 5 outbreaks were reported from the Other settings category where two tested positive for influenza A

2.2 Primary care

Data from primary care surveillance shows:

• the rate of influenza-like illness (ILI) was above baseline threshold level
• the overall weekly ILI GP consultation rate was 13.1 per 100,000 in week 49 compared to 10.6 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 Scotland and Wales, however at moderate impact levels in Northern Ireland

2.3 Secondary care

Data from secondary care surveillance shows:

• hospitalisation rate observed were at moderate intensity levels, with a rate of 5.06 per 100,000 in week 49 compared to 4.01 per 100,000 trust catchment population in the previous week, for England (21 NHS Trusts)
• ICU and HDU admission rate observed are above baseline levels, with a rate of 0.22 per 100,000 in week 49 compared to 0.15 per 100,000 trust catchment population in the previous week, for England (134 out of 143 NHS Trusts)
• there were no influenza confirmed admission 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 49
• in the devolved administrations, no statistically significant excess all-cause mortality for all ages was observed in Wales and Northern Ireland in week 49, and for Scotland in week 47 2019

2.5 Microbiological surveillance

Data from microbiological surveillance shows:

• in primary care, 66 samples tested positive for influenza (2 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, 59 influenza A(H3) and 4 influenza A(not subtyped) and one co-infection of influenza A(not subtyped) and influenza B) through the UK GP sentinel swabbing schemes in week 49, with an overall positivity of 36.6%
• a total of 546 detections were recorded through the DataMart scheme (12 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, 410 influenza A(H3), 113 influenza A(not subtyped) and 11 influenza B) with an overall positivity of 17.9% and above baseline threshold levels

2.6 Vaccination

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

• up to week 49 2019, in 93.2% of GP practices in England, the provisional proportion of people who had received the 2019 to 2020 influenza vaccine in targeted groups was 37.1% in under 65 years in a clinical risk group, 38.8% in pregnant women and 68.5% in those aged 65 and over
• up to week 49 2019, in 92.8% of GP practices reporting for the childhood collection the provisional proportion vaccinated was 28.9% in 2 year olds and 28.1% in 3 year olds

Provisional data from the first monthly collection of influenza vaccine uptake by frontline healthcare workers show 43.6% were vaccinated by 31 October 2019, compared to 46.3% vaccinated in the previous season by 31 October 2018.

Provisional data from the first monthly collection of influenza vaccine uptake for children of school years reception to year 6 shows 17.9% in school year reception age, 17.6% in school year 1 age, 17.3% in school year 2 age, 16.6% in school year 3 age, 16.4% in school year 4 age, 15.8% in school year 5 and 15.2% in school year 6 age were vaccinated by 31 October 2019.

3. International situation

• in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, influenza activity and respiratory illness indicators started to increase in most countries with influenza activity elevated across the countries in Western Asia
• in the temperate zones of the southern hemisphere, influenza activity returned to interseasonal levels
• worldwide, seasonal influenza A(H3N2) 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.