Official Statistics

National flu report summary: 21 November 2019 (week 47)

Updated 1 October 2020

1. Main points: data up to week 46, 2019

Data up to week 46 (ending 17 November 2019) shows:

• during week 46, influenza activity has started to increase however all but one influenza activity indicators are Below baseline.
• the impact of flu on healthcare services is Above baseline for hospitalisations and Below baseline for ICU/HDU influenza admissions.
• 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 122 new acute respiratory outbreaks reported in the past 7 days
• 30 outbreaks were reported from care homes where 5 tested positive for influenza A(unknown subtype)
• 1 outbreak was reported from a hospital with no test results available
• 88 outbreaks were reported from schools where 2 tested positive for influenza A(unknown subtype)
• the remaining 3 outbreaks were reported from the Other settings category where one 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 5.3 per 100,000 in week 46 compared to 4.6 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 Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales

2.3 Secondary care

Data from secondary care surveillance shows:

• hospitalisation rate observed was above baseline impact levels, with a rate of 1.55 per 100,000 in week 46 compared to 0.75 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 0.05 per 100,000 in week 46 compared to 0.02 per 100,000 trust catchment population in the previous week, for England (141 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 46
• in the devolved administrations, no statistically significant excess all-cause mortality for all ages was observed in Wales and Northern Ireland in week 46, and for Scotland in week 44 2019

2.5 Microbiological surveillance

Data from microbiological surveillance shows:

• in primary care, 18 samples tested positive for influenza (1 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, 10 influenza A(H3), 5 influenza A(unknown subtype) and 2 influenza B) through the UK GP sentinel swabbing schemes in week 46, with an overall positivity of 17.6%
• a total of 129 detections were recorded through the DataMart scheme (4 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, 65 influenza A(H3), 52 influenza A(not subtyped) and 8 influenza B), with an overall positivity of 3.7% and below 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 46 2019, in 89.4% of GP practices in England, the provisional proportion of people who had received the 2019 to 2020 influenza vaccine in targeted groups was 30.1% in under 65 years in a clinical risk group, 33.1% in pregnant women and 64.1% in those aged 65 and over
• up to week 46 2019, in 88.9% of GP practices reporting for the childhood collection the provisional proportion vaccinated was 16.2% in 2 year olds and 15.7% 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 remained at inter-seasonal levels in most countries; however continued to increase across the countries of the Arabian Peninsula
• in the temperate zones of the southern hemisphere, influenza activity was low in most countries, with influenza B virus detections continuing to be reported by Chile.
• worldwide, seasonal influenza 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.