Official Statistics

National flu report summary: 23 January 2020 (week 4)

Updated 1 October 2020

1. Main points: data up to week 3, 2020

Data up to week 3 (ending 19 January 2020) shows:

• during week 3, influenza activity continues but shows signs of having peaked in some indicators
• the impact of flu on healthcare services is now at low intensity levels for hospitalisations and ICU/HDU influenza admissions
• the Department of Health & Social Care has issued an alert on the prescription of antiviral medicines by GPs

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 36 new acute respiratory outbreaks reported in the past 7 days
• 30 outbreaks were reported from care homes where 5 tested positive for influenza A
• 5 outbreaks were reported from hospitals where 4 tested positive for influenza A
• the remaining outbreak was reported from the Other settings category and tested positive for influenza B

2.2 Primary care

Data from primary care surveillance shows:

• The overall weekly influenza-like illness (ILI) rate decreased to 10.3 per 100,000 registered population in participating GP practices for England and is now below baseline threshold levels, a decrease from 14.7 per 100,000 in the previous week *In the devolved administrations, ILI rates were at baseline levels in Scotland and Northern Ireland; and low levels in Wales for week 3

2.3 Secondary care

Data from secondary care surveillance shows:

• hospitalisation rate observed was at low impact levels, with a rate of 1.44 per 100,000 in week 3 compared to 2.43 per 100,000 trust catchment population in the previous week, for England (18 NHS Trusts)
• ICU and HDU admission rate observed was at low impact levels, with a rate of 0.13 per 100,000 in week 3 compared to 0.21 per 100,000 trust catchment population in the previous week, for England (134 out of 143 NHS Trusts)
• there were 3 new influenza confirmed admission (1 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, 1 influenza A(H3N2)and 1 influenza A(not subtyped)) 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 3
• in the devolved administrations, no statistically significant excess all-cause mortality for all ages was observed in Wales and Northern Ireland in week 3 2020 and no excess was noted for Scotland in week 1 2020

2.5 Microbiological surveillance

Data from microbiological surveillance shows:

• in primary care, 20 samples tested positive for influenza (7 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, 8 influenza A(H3), 2 influenza A(not subtyped) and 3 influenza B) through the UK GP sentinel swabbing schemes in week 3, with an overall positivity of 16.8%
• a total of 227 detections were recorded through the DataMart scheme (41 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, 90 influenza A(H3), 75 influenza A(not subtyped) and 21 influenza B) with an overall positivity of 9.0% 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 3 2020, in 97.9% of GP practices in England, the provisional proportion of people who had received the 2019 to 2020 influenza vaccine in targeted groups was 42.5% in under 65 years in a clinical risk group, 42.4% in pregnant women and 71.4% in those aged 65 and over
• up to week 3 2020, in 93.4% of GP practices reporting for the childhood collection the provisional proportion vaccinated was 40.3% in 2 year olds and 40.9% in 3 year olds

Provisional data from the third monthly collection of influenza vaccine uptake by frontline healthcare workers show 68.5% were vaccinated by 31 December 2019, compared to 65.8% vaccinated in the previous season by 31 December 2018

Provisional data from the second monthly collection of influenza vaccine uptake for children of school years reception to year 6 shows 61.6% in school year reception age, 60.9% in school year 1 age, 60.1% in school year 2 age, 58.1% in school year 3 age, 57.3% in school year 4 age, 55.0% in school year 5 and 52.8% in school year 6 age were vaccinated by 31 December 2019

3. International situation

• in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, influenza activity and respiratory illness indicators continued to circulate with some countries having peaked
• in the temperate zones of the southern hemisphere, influenza activity remained at 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.